


Love By Daylight

by LoafChampion



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Cheryl Mason and Kate Denson are SOULMATES, F/F, Gay, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, I promise it will make sense, If you're not convinced after this than I have somehow failed, Lesbian, Love Story, PTSD, Romance, Silent Hill References, Slow Burn, Yes Taylor Swift plays a key role in this, just trust me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 62,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28601352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoafChampion/pseuds/LoafChampion
Summary: Kate doesn't understand how someone could endure so much suffering and still be so strong, how such a fragile heart can still burn brighter than she's ever known.Cheryl doesn't understand how someone could be in such a horrible place and still be so kind, how such a brilliant light can still flicker from demons of her own.Together they learn how to protect each other, how to heal, how to love. How the missing piece in each of their old lives that kept them from seeing the light of day was miraculously, evidently, each other.
Relationships: Kate Denson/Cheryl Mason
Comments: 36
Kudos: 49





	1. The Archer

Cheryl felt so dizzy, like her world was spinning around her- like there would never be an anchor to truly keep her all in one place and whole.

Yet she had felt that way her entire life.

The sight of her freshly wretched-up blood on the floor made her insides twist in a violent panic, bringing her back to one of her worst memories. She could still feel all of the panic, the hatred, the rage she felt towards Claudia-

“You should get up now.”

The voice split through Cheryl’s racing thoughts as her nausea began to fade, and she started to feel the ground beneath her hands and knees again. Yet it felt different- it felt like grass?

Cheryl opened her eyes, blinking a few times to adjust to the new environment that was certainly nothing like the crisis center she was working in not moments prior. It was difficult to see exactly where she was, as there was a thick fog obscuring much of her surroundings.

“If you don’t move soon, it’s going to find you.”

Cheryl turned her head towards the source of the voice, coming from behind a pile of scrap metal, smashed together to look like a short wall of some kind. Something about the way the voice said _it_ was enough for Cheryl to guess that whatever _it_ was, she wouldn’t want to be found by it. She tried her best to stand up slowly, pushing blonde bangs out of her face- that can’t be right…

Cheryl would worry about that later, the dreadful atmosphere in the air told her there were far bigger problems. She slowly crept over to the pile of scrap metal and turned to duck behind it and meet the source of the voice talking to her.

“You catch on quick, I already like you better than some of the more experienced survivors.”

Crouched behind the wall with Cheryl was a woman in dark clothes and short jet-black hair, though most of it was tucked behind a dark beanie. She kept peeking around the side of the scrap-metal wall they were hiding behind, not bothering to look at Cheryl during the few times she spoke.

“I’m not very good with new survivors, they always waste time and give away my position- but hopefully Jane and Quentin have made progress on the generators by now-”

A sharp chime echoed through the air, and Cheryl could somehow see a gold aura of what must presumably be a generator glow through the thick fog in the distance. 

“That’s one, four more to go. There are five generators total that we have to repair completely in order to open the exit gates and escape. There’s also a hatch in the ground if you can find it, but that one’s a little trickier to open-”

The woman had a thick accent of some kind, Cheryl couldn’t tell if it was German or possibly Swedish. Before Cheryl could ask any questions the woman started moving out from behind the scrap-pile, keeping herself in a low crouch and moving quickly from the various bits of scrap and rubble scattered throughout the area. Cheryl attempted to follow her but couldn’t move as fast while crouched, having to stand up and jog slightly to keep up with the woman.

She came to a stop around another short scrap-metal wall and Cheryl quickly ducked around it to stay with her. She hated this lingering tension in the air, especially when she couldn’t quite place why everything felt so tense. It all felt too much like…

No. This wasn’t that place. She would have known if she was back there, she would have felt it somehow. 

The other woman moved out from behind the new scrap-metal wall towards a device Cheryl recognized from the gold aura a few minutes prior. This must be one of the generators she had been talking about. 

The woman knelt down in front of the generator and opened up its front panel, sticking her hands inside of the machine to move the various components around as Cheryl watched in curious interest. 

Suddenly the woman stopped and glanced over at Cheryl. “You’re going to have to make yourself useful if you’re going to get out of here alive. Come help me with this generator.”

Cheryl uncrossed her tightly-clasped arms and made her way over to the generator, kneeling down beside the woman. She was about to explain how she knew absolutely nothing about engineering or mechanics when she suddenly found herself opening up one of the side panels and moving various wires around. Strange. Perhaps she had been a mechanic in a past life, though that seemed rather unlikely considering-

“You’re passing your skill checks well for a new survivor, we’re almost finished with this one.”

Cheryl felt the other woman glancing at her as she spoke, but she decided not to acknowledge the compliment and keep herself focused. Cheryl didn’t know why yet, but she knew finishing these generators and escaping was important. This was a bad place to be. 

“When this generator is finished, the killer will be attracted to the gold aura and come this way. When I leave, do not follow me. Go somewhere else, your outfit is very bright and I would rather not be near if the killer sees you.”

The killer? 

Cheryl’s forehead crinkled in confusion, she didn’t think her clothes were that bright. She looked down at her outfit, causing her stomach to drop like a stone. 

She was wearing her sleeveless orange turtleneck underneath her white hooded vest-jacket, with that same green skirt and boots from so long ago. The same outfit she wore when she found her father in that chair- 

The generator suddenly made that same high pitched chime she heard earlier, lighting up in a brilliant gold aura. 

“I suggest you get out of here quickly- my name is Nea by the way, best of luck to you.”

“Wait-”

Cheryl finally spoke, turning to reach out to where Nea had been kneeling only to find that she had completely vanished. 

Now she was completely alone. 

The rising panic of her new situation was finally catching up to her now that she was alone. She hated how her clothes, this environment- this killer that she needed to run from- all made her feel like she was reliving those unspeakable horrors from her past. 

Her eyes stung as they pricked with warm tears, yet she clenched her fists hard and fought to keep them from falling. Back then she would have cried, but now she knew better. Crying would do nothing to ease her struggle.

Cheryl wiped her eyes with her arm and quickly broke out into a run, finding a large rock not too far from the repaired generator to hide behind. She noticed that there was a large brick wall that seemed to stretch along the side of this new place. It was too high to climb, and it stretched too far along from Cheryl’s vision. Wherever she was, this was an enclosed space. She was trapped here. 

That must have been what Nea was talking about, the only way to escape this place was to power an exit gate somewhere- or find the hatch, whatever that was. 

Cheryl suddenly felt her chest tighten uncontrollably, the sound of a heartbeat slowly growing louder and louder, but Cheryl couldn’t tell if it was her own. The sound was coming from all around her. She felt as if her entire body was being consumed by terror, and she fought the sudden urge to scream. She leaned back against the rock she was hiding behind and closed her eyes, keeping her face pinched tightly in some attempt to control her emotions. 

The heartbeat started to gradually quiet down, before she heard a high-pitched screeching noise that sounded muffled and cut off, then suddenly silence. 

Once Cheryl was sure she had her breathing under control again did she find her footing and dare to look over from the rock. She hadn’t heard any footsteps, but she was certain that someone or something had been near. That must be the killer Nea mentioned. 

Whatever it was, Cheryl hadn’t felt a fear like that in a long time. 

She tried to shake her head to clear the lingering memories of fear that crept into her thoughts, now trying to reassess her new situation and figure out what she should do next. Based on what Nea said, there were now three generators left to repair. 

Cheryl tried her best to walk slowly through the environment and hide behind anything she could find. Nea did have a point, her bright white vest stuck out like a sore thumb against the dull grays and browns of the area. She assumed by all of the scrap metal and various decommissioned vehicles that this was some kind of junkyard. Not the kind of place she would normally be found hanging out in, even in her youth.

The thought almost made her chuckle, she was still so young. Only twenty years old, yet she felt so much older. 

Cheryl finally reached what looked like a small structure, the sounds of mechanical components shifting and echoing from the doorway of the shack. She tried her best not to make the floorboards creak as she entered the shack, holding onto the wall for support. 

Except Cheryl found it wasn’t a wall at all, as the large and flat object she had placed her weight on began to give and shift over.

“Oh, watch it!”

A hand reached out from behind her to help her stop the large wooden object from falling, and moved with Cheryl to gently push the large wooden object back into place. 

“That was a close one- Jane would have been furious if we had wasted this pallet.”

Cheryl turned to face her new companion warily. He would have been significantly taller than her if it weren’t for the slight forward hunch in his posture. She had trouble finding his eyes beneath his dark brown bangs that were thick and shaggy. He too also wore dark clothes, and Cheryl was beginning to sense a theme in the other survivors’ fashion choices. 

“I should explain, Jane’s been running the killer around the most this trial- keeping their attention occupied. That pallet right there can make for one of the best distractions during a rough chase.”

He smiled slightly as he spoke, but nothing could hide the weariness in his voice. 

“It’s always good to have someone distracting the killer while the rest of us can work on repairing the generators without having to worry about getting interrupted.”

Cheryl nodded, beginning to understand what he meant. Yet the thought couldn’t help but nag at her brain, both Nea and this other boy spoke from experience. How many times have they had to do this?

Another chime rang out and another gold aura glowed in the distance. That must have been Nea, repairing another generator. 

Just two more left. 

The two worked on the generator in silence for a few moments, until the boy spoke up again. “My name’s Quentin. I’m sure you have a lot of questions right now, but the others can answer all of them back at camp once we escape.”

Cheryl didn’t verbally respond to him, only nodded once again as she kept working on the generator. She appreciated his reassurance, but he had no way of knowing that words of comfort were useless to someone like her. 

“So uh, what’s your name?”

Cheryl sighed. Quentin seemed nice, but she had been dreading her own introduction to these other survivors. It was best to just keep it short and sweet and just tell him her name- and nothing else.

“My name is Heather-”

What?

Cheryl’s eyes widened at her own mistake. She hadn’t gone by that name in years, why had she said that?

“No wait- sorry! My name is Cheryl. I used to go by Heather when I was younger, but now I go by Cheryl.”

Quentin gave her a slightly questioning look, but thankfully didn't ask her anything further. 

Another generator completion chime rang out, causing both Quentin and Cheryl to look at each other in confusion. 

“Did Nea finish another generator that quickly?” 

Quentin shook his head and began to stand up.

“Impossible- that must have been Jane. I thought she was running the killer but she must have lost them-”

The same muffled high-pitched screech Cheryl heard earlier rang out again, and Quentin’s face fell. 

“That’s The Nurse. We have to get out of here now-”

The pounding heartbeat sound suddenly returned, roaring in Cheryl’s ears as a jagged bonesaw cleaved into her right side. She cried out in pain and tried her best to scramble away from whatever or whoever had just wounded her.

“Cheryl run!”

Cheryl turned to get a good look at her assailant as it was momentarily distracted by Quentin’s yelling. While she wasn’t sure what the creature was now, it looked like it was once a young woman by the way it was dressed in an old-fashioned nurse’s outfit. Anything above her shoulders was obscured by a sack of some kind tied tightly over her face, and Cheryl couldn’t help but wonder how she was even able to breath underneath. Yet she was also capable of supernaturally teleporting places, so perhaps she shouldn’t question it. 

Her hands tightly clasped around the gushing wound in her right side. She was about to turn and start bolting for the doorway of the shack when she noticed The Nurse turn her attention away from Quentin and at the generator they had nearly finished repairing. From the way she raised her left arm and readied her bonesaw, it looked as if The Nurse was going to slash at the generator and ruin all of their progress. 

Even while gravely injured, the thought of a ruined generator keeping everyone from escaping sparked a sudden boil of hot rage within Cheryl. She let out a soft growl of annoyance and stretched out her left arm, curling her fingers towards herself slightly. She honestly had no idea what exactly she was doing, but in that moment her intention was clear- that generator was to be protected.

A black cloud suddenly sprouted out from above the generator, thick midnight tendrils blazing out from the smoke and enveloping the generator like a demonic claw machine. 

Cheryl blinked, realizing what she had done as she stared at her left hand in shock. 

“What did you do?”

She looked back at the doorway and saw Quentin staring at the generator in horror, before his gaze turned into something almost angry as it shifted towards Cheryl. 

“I don’t-”

Her attempt to sputter out an explanation was cut off by her own scream as The Nurse’s bonesaw dug into her upper back with such force she was knocked onto the ground. The pain overtook Cheryl in such a thick wave that she didn’t even think about trying to get up. Her vision blurred heavily for a moment and when it finally started to clear, she could only make out the dark outline of Quentin running in the other direction. 

She felt The Nurse grab her sides harshly and pick her up, slinging Cheryl over her shoulder. She hissed out in pain but wouldn’t give The Nurse the satisfaction of hearing her scream again. Her blood trickled down The Nurse’s uniform, staining the already quite filthy dress.

Even if the other survivors probably hated Cheryl and saw her as some freak for whatever she just did, she wasn’t going to give up and die now. Not after everything else she had endured in her life. 

The thought made her let out a soft laugh, despite the gnawing pain from her wounds. After all this time, she was still determined to try and live a full life- maybe not a happy life- but a full life nonetheless. All just to spite them.

Cheryl kicked and fought against The Nurse. She didn’t seem nearly as strong as her previous blows would have suggested, but she figured that was just another one of her demonic supernatural upgrades. 

Every time she moved it felt as if her entire body was screaming out in pain, but she merely gritted her teeth and kept hitting.

Suddenly The Nurse stopped moving, and Cheryl saw her chance to start kicking at her shoulders in hopes she would drop her. What she wasn’t prepared for was the pain that exploded all over her left shoulder, and she was powerless to suppress an agonizing wail that ripped out of her throat. 

When her vision finally returned she could see The Nurse floating away, yet she now seemed shorter-

Cheryl looked down and realized with horror that she was suspended in the air, pinned up by a rusty hook that was driven through her shoulder. 

Her first thought was to reach up and try and pull herself off of the hook, but her shoulder quickly began to spew blood and the burning became too much to bear. Cheryl quietly huffed in refusal before she braced herself and tried again. More pain. More blood. 

A dark cloud quickly formed around Cheryl, who was bracing herself to try and escape the hook again before deep black tendrils spilled out of the cloud and began to envelop Cheryl. She recognized them and realized that this was the same entity she had summoned to protect the generator, only this time it was looking ready to impale those claw-like tendrils straight into her abdomen. 

The middle claw swooped down to finish her off before she reached out and grabbed the claw itself, holding it in place. It continued to press down, trying to reach Cheryl’s flesh as she struggled and refused. 

“I don’t wanna die…” Cheryl choked the words out as her final plea to The Entity.

“You won’t, but maybe you’ll get to experience being sacrificed another time.”

Cheryl looked down in surprise to see a woman in a pinstripe suit smiling up at her. She wondered if she was hallucinating, but the woman looked almost exactly like an old talk show host her Dad used to watch- what was her name…

The woman must have noticed the recognition in Cheryl’s eyes as she gently lowered her from the rusty hook.

“If you’d like an autograph, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until we’re back at the campfire. We need to get you out of here in one piece first-”

The woman opened up a medical kit she’d been carrying and pulled out some bandages, beginning to wrap them around Cheryl’s shoulder. Jane. Quentin and Nea said her name was Jane. The recognition finally clicked in Cheryl’s mind.

“You’re Jane Romero…”

“The one and only.” Jane stated plainly as she finished up with another bandage wrapping around Cheryl’s waist. Memories of hearing the woman's voice on television began to drift into the younger girl's mind, but she tried her best to shake them away. Memories of anything related to her Dad were simply too much for Cheryl to bear right now, when she needed to focus on surviving. 

“That should be enough to hold you together until Claudette can take a look at you. She’s the closest thing we have to a doctor back at camp.”

Another chime rang out but it was different than the generator chimes. This one was low and longer, droning out like a dull and foreboding echo. 

Jane looked off in the distance, shaking her head. “Why did Quentin open the gate? I told him to go get Nea- she got hooked too but I went to get you first since I knew you’d lose all your strength trying to escape.”

Cheryl thought about Nea, wounded and bleeding out on a rusty metal hook.

“We need to go rescue her.”

Jane smiled. “I like the way you think, but I’m not sure if we have the time now that Quentin opened the gate. Tell you what- you head that way and get through the gate and I’ll see if I can go get Nea.”

Jane pointed out in the direction towards the exit gate. Cheryl wanted to do more to help, but it was clear she still didn’t know enough about how these trials worked to be of much help at the moment. She nodded at Jane and took off in the direction of the exit gate. 

As Cheryl ran, the high pitched screeching sound returned, along with the dreaded pounding heartbeat. She grimaced and tried to run faster, only turning back when she heard the heartbeat start to slow.

The Nurse no longer seemed interested in Cheryl, floating off in Jane’s direction before she made that awful screeching sound again and disappeared from her vision. 

She kept running in the direction Jane had shown her until she saw the high brick walls that entrapped the survivors come together in a massive metal door, already opened. Cheryl let out a soft puff of air in relief. She didn’t entirely know why yet, but some part of her knew that once she was beyond that gate she would be safe from that damn Nurse. 

Standing at the gate was Quentin, cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling something Cheryl couldn’t quite make out until she got closer.

“Jane come on! Get Nea and run! Don’t go for Cheryl, she’s with The Entity! Come on Jane get over here!”

She wasn't quite sure what to make of Quentin’s new claim against her. She knew she had somehow summoned The Entity to protect the generator, but judging by the way it tried to impale her on that hook- it was clear that The Entity was not on her side. 

Quentin’s yelling stopped abruptly as soon as he noticed Cheryl coming to the gate, his face hardening. She decided it was best to pretend she hadn’t heard him, but she knew she’d have to start clearing her name sooner rather than later. 

“How did you get the last generator finished?”

Cheryl’s question came out in a huff as she was still trying to catch her breath, pretending not to notice him step away from her when she finally came to a stop.

“The Entity only held the generator hostage for a few seconds, and because The Nurse was busy hooking you and Nea I was able to finish the generator as soon as it left.”

“Ah, well that's good-"

Her awkward attempt at a reply was interrupted by the low chime ringing out once again, causing Quentin to cringe at the sound. 

“Jane needs to get back with Nea quick, their time’s almost up.”

Cheryl’s frown seemed to deepen, her arms crossing over herself as she looked down at her boots.

“What happens if they don’t make it out in time?”

“They’ll get sacrificed, just like they would if they were on the hook.”

Her blood ran cold at that thought.

“What happens when you get sacrificed?”

The hard look on Quentin’s face softened, he must have heard the fear that laced Cheryl’s voice. Yet his eyes still darkened as his gaze shifted downward.

“Well, you die. At least for a little while. Then The Entity sends you straight back to camp, until he needs you for the next trial.”

Cheryl thought about what Quentin was saying carefully. 

“But trust me, you don’t wanna get sacrificed. It sounds nice, being able to escape the killers and the pain for a little while. But The Entity hurts so much worse, it’s like getting your soul tortured.”

Cheryl tried to look sympathetic- as if she wasn't already very familiar with the concept of soul torture- but before she could say anything in response the low chime rang out again, this time followed by the loud ticking of what sounded like a timer- but the sound was coming from all around them. 

Quentin shook his head. “They’re out of time. We have to leave now.” He turned and fled through the gate before Cheryl could say any word of protest, looking back at the foggy scrapyard one last time before fleeing on after him. 

It took quite a bit of effort, but Cheryl was able to catch up to Quentin. The more they ran the more it became clear to Cheryl that Quentin was trying to outrun her. A biting remark came to her mind, but before she could say it out loud the thought died instantly at the sound of the final chime. 

Cheryl stopped in her tracks and turned to stare back the way she came at the exit gates, the final screams of Jane and Nea getting sacrificed echoing through the endless fog.

Another wave of guilt washed over her, leaving her thankful she had her old hairstyle again. The blonde bangs could cover her eyes if she tilted her head low enough, masking the clear grief and shame that would continually haunt her face.

She waited for her breathing to even back out again, for that unbearable urge to cry to subside and bury itself back within her before she dared to turn back around. 

Quentin had stopped running, watching her carefully and waiting for her to catch up to him. She raised an eyebrow at the boy when they started running side by side, to which he still seemed apprehensive about.

“Look Cheryl, I’m gonna be honest with you- I don’t trust you. But I’ve never come across a survivor working with The Entity before, so I’m going to take you back to camp and have Dwight decide what to do with you.”

Cheryl quietly muttered something of acknowledgement, too busy processing the events she just witnessed and worrying about her new situation to argue much with him now. As the pair kept making their way through the fog, they finally came across a thick forest. The trees were a dull shade of gray, and the colorless sky quickly darkened into nightfall the second they fully entered the woods. Cheryl never really considered herself to be a big nature enthusiast, but even she had to admit she’d never seen a forest look so desolate and lifeless. 

“We’re almost there-” Quentin muttered out, and Cheryl tried her best to peer through the trees. She could make out the faint glow of a light in the distance, quickly fading from her vision as they had to jump down a short drop off of stones to reach the thicker trees and bushes that must have surrounded their camp. 

The pair reached a final set of bushes and Quentin parted an opening in the branches for Cheryl to walk through. She gave a quick nod of gratitude to Quentin before heading through and coming face to face with the source of the light she saw earlier in the distance.

“Oh-”

Sitting at the campfire that greeted Cheryl was a woman- a beautiful, hopeful, radiant, lighting bolt of a woman. Her golden brown curls trailed past the straps of her black tank top. The sound of Cheryl’s voice caused her head to jerk up from staring at the campfire and directly at the new survivor. 

Cheryl was unsure what the look on her face must have given away to this girl, but it caused her to immediately stand up and give Cheryl a warm smile that quickly shifted into concern. 

“Are you okay?”

Having absolutely no idea how to answer that question, Cheryl still opened her mouth to reply anyways before Quentin emerged from the bushes behind them and spoke up first. 

“We need to get Dwight, and don’t tell the others that we have a new survivor just yet.”

The woman’s face changed from concern to confusion, her gaze slowly shifting from Cheryl to Quentin, then back over to Cheryl- who's eyes were firmly trained on the campfire. She couldn't find herself able to meet those deep blue eyes staring into her, concluding it must have been due to the other woman’s dark eye makeup. Cheryl never found that look very appealing, even when she used to wear make up more often in the past.

The woman kept her gaze on Cheryl for another moment longer before the fire crackled and Cheryl involuntarily flinched, causing the woman to turn away and start heading towards the various tents set up behind the campfire. There seemed to be about ten different tents total, all crudely made with a worn green fabric. There were two tents off to the left of the campfire and eight tents off to the right, all in a clean row that stretched all the way to the edge of the clearing.

She noticed the other girl poke her head in the tent on the farthest left side, and after a moment she stepped back and as a tall and lanky man in a necktie emerged. He hesitantly made his way over to them while the girl went back behind the tents on the right side until Cheryl couldn’t see her anymore. 

“Well congratulations, you’ve managed to survive your very first trial!” 

Dwight reached out and grabbed Cheryl’s hand, shaking it in a way that was somewhere between enthusiastic and awkward. Immediately feeling unnerved, she pulled her hand away sharply which caused Dwight to adjust his glasses and study her for a moment. 

“So, what’s your story?”

Cheryl stiffened, glancing between Dwight and the campfire a handful of times. Where in the world could she even begin to start?

She heard hushed voices from the various tents on the right side behind the campfire, and noticed a few emerging heads glancing in her direction. 

“I uh- I’m not sure if I’m very comfortable sharing my ‘story’ with a stranger, with all due respect-”

She’d never considered herself as someone who was bad with people in the past, but in recent years she had admittedly become a lot more introverted and closed off. It didn’t help that everything about this new place reminded Cheryl of the very things that caused her personality to initially shift in the first place.

Yet Dwight didn’t seem phased at all by her coldness, nodding in understanding.

“Right, you’ve probably been through a lot just now. Not to worry, I’ll have Claudette take a look at your wounds and we’ll have you sorted into one of our spare tents once you’re all settled in-”

“Dwight, there’s something you need to know before we let everyone else know about her.”

Dwight titled his head at Quentin’s strange remark before looking over at Cheryl curiously.

“What _do_ I need to know about her before we let everyone else know about her?”

“Well well well, who’s the new survivor?”

Dwight immediately held up his hand to stop a younger boy with long brown hair from approaching Cheryl curiously.

“Not now Steve, go back to your tent and don’t tell any of the others about this.”

The boy lifted a hand to the back of his neck and looked down. 

“Uh, it’s a little late for that- Kate already told everyone.”

As other survivors slowly crept out of their tents and started to approach the new survivor eagerly, the girl from before- Kate- seemed to innocently linger in the back of the small crowd forming. Cheryl wasn’t quite sure what to make of her just yet.

Dwight let out a long sigh and turned to face the crowd. “Settle down everyone, settle down. Our new survivor is probably very worn out from her first trial and we still need Claudette to assess her injuries, so let’s just all go back to our tents and-”

“I think she’s working with The Entity!”

Dwight snapped his head in Quentin’s direction and froze as a chorus of whispers and remarks erupted from the small crowd of survivors, who were starting to grow closer to closing in on Cheryl.

“Quentin, I’m gonna need you to elaborate a little on that-”

“I saw her summon The Entity to hold a generator for her.”

“I- wait-”

Cheryl’s attempt at a nonchalant demeanor shattered like glass as she held up her hands in defense at all of the eyes that were suddenly on her. 

“I didn’t mean to summon The… Entity thing- I just wanted to protect the generator from getting damaged by The Nurse. I had no idea I could even do something like that.”

While that was almost entirely true, not everybody in the crowd seemed convinced. 

“So is she with The Entity or not?”

“How could somebody accidentally summon The Entity on a generator?”

“If she’s suspected of working with the enemy then we have to get rid of her, plain and simple!”

Cheryl had no idea how to respond to any of them, quickly getting overwhelmed as she took several steps back- until a final voice cut through the crowd’s chatter with a professionally trained escalation in volume.

“Are you okay?”

Cheryl’s eyes scanned the crowd in search of the person who spoke until the crowd parted as the source of the voice pushed on through- Kate. 

“You never answered me when I asked you earlier, are you okay?”

Cheryl stared back at Kate in absolute bewilderment for several heartbeats, before forcing her face back into a guarded state. That was seemingly enough to brace her finally meeting Kate’s eyes with a cold and even stare. 

“I’m… fine. Just a little tired and confused at everything that’s happening right now- and I probably need to change these.”

Cheryl’s lie was followed by a gesture to her blood soaked bandages, which seemed to prompt a small dark haired girl emerging from the crowd and step forward, stopping when she reached just behind Dwight.

“That’s going to need an herbal treatment, and those are back at my tent.” The girl, who Cheryl assumed was Claudette, pointed back towards the closer of the tents on the left as she spoke flatly. 

Dwight had his fingers curled inward and touching his upper lip, appearing in deep thought as this exchange took place. Finally he cleared his throat and spoke up.

“I do understand why Quentin is concerned. While all of us have our own unique perks and skills as survivors, none of us have ever seen someone with the ability to summon or even manipulate The Entity before. I can tell from your shoulder that you were hooked during the trial. Did you reach stage two of the sacrifice?”

Cheryl fought back a wince of pain from the memory of being impaled on that rusty hook. 

“If you’re referring to the part where The Entity appeared and tried to gut me like a fish- then yes, I reached stage two all right.”

An amused smile began to play across Dwight’s face as he turned to Quentin. 

“Can you confirm this?”

Quentin shook his head. “I can’t per se, but Jane was the one who unhooked her, so she can tell us what she saw when she gets back.”

Dwight nodded and gestured back over to the tents.

“Okay, so what we’ll do for now is have our new friend here stay in Claudette’s tent and get herself patched up. I’ll have Meg and Jake keep an eye on her just in case anything were to happen, but I doubt there’s anything suspicious going on here. I think we just have a rather… unique new survivor in our midst.”

Cheryl narrowed her eyes in caution at what exactly the leader meant, but at least that seemed to calm everybody down and get them shuffling back to either their tents or the campfire. She quietly began to follow Claudette back to her tent, noticing two other survivors following her closely- she assumed that they were Meg and Jake. 

Looking over her shoulder, Cheryl glanced back warily at the campfire one last time before ducking into the dark tent. She pretended not to notice the way the fire crackled and sparks flew in her direction, or how Kate hadn’t been paying attention to any of the other survivors at the campfire with her, keeping her eyes on Cheryl the entire time with an unreadable expression on her face.


	2. the lakes

Kate always did her best songwriting at night- she would spend countless sleepless nights under the lamp in her childhood bedroom, scribbling out lyrics into a colorful notebook. 

How ironic now, that despite spending so much time in a realm of eternal night, she could never find herself able to write even so much as a poem. 

The campfire crackled and sparks flew in the direction of Claudette’s tent, just where the new survivor had disappeared to not moments prior. Kate was often known for being able to feel things that others couldn’t, sense things that others would tell her weren’t there.

She certainly felt something different about the new survivor, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on what that feeling was just yet. 

“Maybe Dwight is right about Cheryl, but I’m telling you guys that I’m not sure if I’d trust her just yet-”

Kate finally turned towards Quentin, who was sitting on a log just to her left at the campfire. She was going to nod as if she had been paying attention to his conversation with Zarina and Yui the entire time, but hearing the new survivor’s name for the first time set off a strange feeling that caused Kate to pause.

As if the name ‘Cheryl’ carried some kind of ominous weight to it. 

She finally decided to speak up. “I would never say that your feelings are wrong Quentin, but you do have a pretty strong track record of being a little paranoid.”

Yui let out a soft chuckle next to her while Zarina smirked. Quentin merely raised his hands in defense.

“I’m not gonna argue with you there, and Cheryl did seem like she wanted to help the others in the trial. But there was just something that seemed weird about her- like she’s hiding something.”

“Perhaps she could just be scared, this place can certainly be overwhelming. Especially to new survivors.” Zarina pushed her shorter dark brown hair away from her face as she spoke, adjusting her tan leather jacket underneath her thick brown scarf.

Kate noticed Yui nod along in understanding next to her. Zarina was the most recent survivor to join them before Cheryl, and Yui was just before her. Despite being newer survivors, Kate probably got along with them the most outside of trials. The three of them even shared a tent together, though that was mostly because they were the closest in age to Kate herself. 

“You’re probably right... “ Quentin trailed off, as if he was trying to remember something important. His face suddenly lit up and he started digging around his pockets.

“I found something in the garage at autohaven during that last trial, but you guys have to promise not to tell anyone…”

Kate clasped her hands together in anticipation as she heard the sound of crinkling plastic from his pockets. Quentin pulled out a small brown box covered in plastic wrapping, but it was the label on the wrapping that made Kate squeal out in excitement.

“You found chocolate!”

Quentin quickly hid the package under his jacket and frantically tried to shush her. “Don’t say anything to the others, I want to see if we can get some marshmallows and crackers from Mount Ormond next time we have a trial there-”

“To make campfire s’mores…” Kate whispered back in awe. It was fairly common for survivors to try and steal supplies from the different realms generated by The Entity during the trials. If they managed to survive, they would take their spoils back to camp and share them with the others.

It had been a long time since anyone had been able to get all the ingredients for s’mores.

Quentin carefully handed the package over to Zarina, who Kate would agree was probably the most trustworthy of the three girls with the sweets.

“Can you guys stash them in your tent in the meantime? I don’t trust Steve not to eat them if I try to keep them in mine.”

All three girls nodded as Zarina got up to take the chocolate back over to their tent, a strange thought popping into Kate’s mind.

“Hey Zee, while you’re there could you grab my book and pen for me?”

Zarina gave a little salute of acknowledgement, smiling at the use of the nickname. Yui had given her the nickname during one of their first trials together, and the former racer was typically the only one allowed to use it.

Kate became an exception, mostly because she knew how difficult it could be for people to say no to her. Only during little occasions like these would the Grammy-winning country singer take advantage of this ability. 

“Finally feeling inspired?” Yui implored at Kate, pushing her black and pink goggles up her forehead slightly towards her dirty blonde hair.

“I’m not sure yet, but I know one of these nights a new melody’s gonna come to me, so I want to be ready.”

Yui hummed in approval. “I admire your drive to persist in your passions Kate, even after all this time.”

Kate smiled at the compliment, hiding the way Yui’s words actually unnerved her. There really was no way to track the passage of time here, not with the constant night. Most survivors only slept when they were tired, or when they needed to recover from the brutal toll the trials would take on their bodies. Kate didn’t know how long she’d been here, but she knew it had been a hauntingly long time.

If she hadn’t written anything new in all this time, she feared she’d never be able to write anything new again. 

But as always, Kate pushed that wave of convulsing fear aside. She wasn’t going to give up on her career so easily, not when it had brought her so much success in the past. Even if the chances of ever going back to her old life were next to zero, that was still more than zero. 

And maybe if she kept trying hard enough, she would be able to write music that finally made her happy again. 

Her last album had performed well, but it still wasn’t enough to earn the grammy for Album of the Year like her previous one did. While she did earn a couple of Grammys in the country category for her single _Boil Over,_ she was hoping the first album written entirely by herself would have earned her more with her critics. 

Kate wished she could pretend that stuff didn’t matter anymore, she wished she’d never let that stuff bother her in the first place. She wished she could just sit down and tell an enthralling tale of love, hope, family, and triumph- all through her love for music. 

But Kate simply couldn’t.

Not even when Zarina returned with the empty leather-bound book Kate had stolen from the bloodlodge at autohaven wreckers, and she found herself staring at the blank pages for what felt like- and may very well have been- hours. Desperately hoping to find a melody in her head that she could put words to, or even words that she could find a way to match music too.

It was considerably harder for Kate to write without her trusty guitar on hand, but it wasn’t impossible. She had written songs without it before getting taken by The Entity. 

Eventually she found herself absently observing the way the campfire’s light flickered along the tattoo that covered her entire left arm. It was a group of flowers that sprouted all around her shoulder, with a single large flower starting at the inside of her elbow and stretching its petals all across the remaining skin on her arm. 

Kate almost laughed when she remembered how painful she thought the whole process had been, and again with her other flower tattoo on her right thigh, along with the crescent moon just under her right collarbone.

It was a walk in the park compared to the feeling of the Entity’s claws digging up your insides. 

Zarina and Yui must have gone to bed back in their tent, as Quentin and Kate were now joined by Bill, Nancy, Min, and Laurie. Feng Min was telling the others a story, presumably about an esports tournament she had conquered from her former career.

“And I swear Bill, you looked _exactly_ like the character in Left 4 Dead!”

The uniformed old man merely took another drag of his cigarette and shook his head sternly.

“You must have had too much caffeine then kid, because the hordes I used to fight back in my world were real!”

Laurie laughed, while Nancy watched it all unfold with a nervous smile. It became clear amongst the survivors after a while that not all of them were being pulled from the same world by The Entity. Bill claimed to be from a world ravaged by the undead, while Nancy and Steve claimed they were from a world still in the 1980s, with mysterious creatures and even stranger things lurking undiscovered within their hometown.

And Ash- well nobody was quite sure what world Ash was from- but Kate always assumed it must have been different from her own.

Most of the survivors were from the same world as Kate however, which showed that The Entity did seem to have preferences. It was easy to tell if a new survivor was from her world if they recognized her, as both her and Jane were rather well known media figures back before they were each taken. 

Kate looked over at Quentin, who was watching Claudette’s tent intently.

“You should probably try and get some sleep, you’ve been up for awhile now.”

Quentin merely shrugged and gave her a weary smile. “You already know sleep and I don’t get along very well. Besides, you should speak for yourself.”

Kate brushed off his deflection with ease, letting out a soft laugh. “And you already know that if I tell Steve and David you haven’t been getting enough sleep they’ll come marching out here and carry you to your tent themselves if they have to.”

Quentin raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that a threat?”

“You better believe it is! Now shoo, off you go. Get some rest, I promise I’ll get some shut eye of my own too.”

Quentin let out a prolonged sigh as Kate started to pull him up standing by his jacket and gently push him off in the direction of his tent. She often wondered if the boy would ever willingly sleep on his own if it weren’t for the intervention of the other survivors.

Kate always made a point to keep track of little things like that, make sure the other survivors were taking care of themselves. Like Quentin, some of the survivors would go without eating or sleeping for a while if others like Kate didn’t make a point to remind them.

That was one small thing she admired about this place, how they all still looked out for each other when it really mattered.

Suddenly the fire began to sizzle and hiss fiercely, a plume of black smoke spilling out from the top. Every survivor at the campfire looked at one another anxiously, knowing what that meant. Four trails of jet black smoke shot up from the fire and began to choose its victims.

One immediately found its place around Bill, quickly circling the old veteran over and over until Kate couldn’t see him anymore. Just a thick cloud of smoke that would cause Bill to completely vanish once it cleared. 

Another trail of smoke began to wrap itself around Nancy, whose face immediately fell into worry.

“Tell Steve I’ll be okay-!” Her final request was all the young girl managed to get out before the smoke enveloped her completely, and Kate couldn’t hear her anymore. 

Two more trails of smoke slithered their way into Claudette’s tent, and Kate felt her face frown with worry. She hoped that The Entity wouldn’t take Cheryl, especially so soon after her first trial. 

She didn’t even want to think about it- the girl whose face had given away so many feelings to Kate when their eyes first met- having to suffer through another confusing and tormenting trial that she was unlikely to succeed a second time while still being so new. 

Cheryl’s face had given away feelings that Kate couldn’t even describe into words- which was a first for the talented songwriter. 

So she decided not to think about it, and went on to discuss theories with the remaining survivors about where The Entity might have taken them for this trial. Sometimes the fire would flicker images of the realm The Entity was generating for that trial, but other times it was still completely random.

First however came the opening of the flap from Claudette’s tent, which immediately grabbed Kate’s attention. She felt a small bit of relief to see Cheryl make her way out, now knowing she wasn’t taken by The Entity for the next trial. Her bandages appeared to be well dressed, yet she still kept her arms tightly wound around herself with clenched hands. 

Cheryl’s eyes still were the same as before, red and puffy- like she had been crying. Yet somehow Kate could sense that this woman hadn’t truly cried in a long time. 

Kate watched closely as the newest survivor clearly had no idea where she wanted to go once she had exited Claudette’s tent, glancing rapidly between the other survivors and the campfire- and finally at Kate- before taking one final stare at the campfire and shuffling off to the far left of the clearing. Past the campfire and Claudette and Dwight’s tents over to a large rock that survivors liked to store supplies on. She perched herself on top of the rock with one knee up and drawn close to herself, watching the other survivors from her safe distance from the fire. 

Meg exited Claudette’s tent just a moment after and plopped herself down right next to Kate at the fire. 

“Claudette and Jake got taken for the trial. Anybody else?”

“Bill and Nancy got taken too.” Piped up Laurie, her shoulder-length blonde hair bobbing slightly whenever she spoke.

Meg nodded, glancing over at Cheryl before picking up a bucket of clean water that was always kept near the fire and poured some into a small metal cup.

Two dark figures finally emerged from behind the tents and made their way over to the campfire, revealing themselves as Jane and Nea by the time they stepped into the fire’s light. Anyone who had been sacrificed during the previous trial always returned just after the next trial began. They all knew it was best to give survivors some space just after being sacrificed, as it can be a traumatic experience in a way that shook them to the deepest parts of one’s soul.

Nea sat down at the campfire next to Meg, who gently handed her the cup of water before turning to Jane.

“Dwight needs to talk to you in his tent for a minute, it’s about our new survivor.”

Jane raised an eyebrow curiously and looked over in Cheryl’s direction, who quickly looked away as if she hadn’t been listening. The former talk show host nodded in acknowledgement before pouring her own cup of water from the bucket and started off in the direction of Dwight’s tent.

Just before she reached the flap that opened the leader’s tent, she turned and smiled in Cheryl’s direction before calling out to her.

“Would you care for that autograph now?”

Cheryl only seemed embarrassed for a single heartbeat before her face changed into a small but polite smile. 

“Maybe some other time, but thanks.”

Kate wondered if maybe that was sadness she heard in Cheryl’s voice, but she couldn’t tell any further by the way she tilted her head forward and turned to face away from the other survivors. She couldn’t help but want to know what was going through the other girl’s mind.

A few minutes of awkward silence fell upon the campfire before Kate couldn’t take the lingering curiosity anymore.

“So…” She started, turning towards Meg and Nea.

“What is it?” 

Nea’s response sounded mildly annoyed, but that wasn’t particularly out of character for her. Kate glanced around at the other survivors at the fire when it was Min that picked up on what Kate was trying to ask and finally spoke up.

“What’s the new girl like?”

Nea merely shrugged and took a small sip of her water. “I thought she was fairly competent for her first trial- she caught on to things quickly and passed her skill checks on generators with ease.”

Kate nodded along, genuinely impressed. Most new survivors were practically useless during their first trial, remembering how horrifically she performed during her own.

Her right index finger still throbbed every once in a while from phantom pains that shouldn’t even exist. 

“She’s pretty tough too for our scrawniest survivor yet-” added Meg. “She didn’t even flinch when Claudette changed her bandages, and those cuts were deep.”

Kate wasn’t very surprised to hear this, but couldn’t help finding herself coming to Cheryl’s defense regardless. 

“I don’t know if I’d say she’s the scrawniest, she certainly isn’t that much smaller than you-” 

She followed her statement up by playfully nudging Meg with her elbow, which caused the former athlete to let out an amused scoff and shoved Kate right back, causing the others at the campfire to laugh. 

“So she’s stronger than she looks and can repair generators on her own- but she does seem to be quite the loner-” 

Laurie followed up her comment by turning her head to look behind her at Cheryl. It then struck Kate that she could probably hear everything they were saying about her, and she felt her face quickly flush with shame. 

“That may be what it appears kid, but she wasn’t too happy about leaving Nea and I behind- Cheryl over there definitely seems to care more than she may let on.”

Everybody at the campfire turned to see Jane had returned with Dwight in tow, who took a few more steps in Cheryl’s direction to talk to her directly.

“Your name has officially been cleared! You’re free to pick a tent to snooze in with other survivors or we’ve got a spare empty one if you’d like.”

“She can stay in my tent with Zarina and Yui! If you’d like to that is-”

Nobody except Cheryl seemed very surprised from Kate’s sudden outburst. Hospitality was Kate Denson’s bread and butter, always the first to do whatever she could to make the new survivors feel welcome. It was the very reason why she chose to ignore Quentin’s request to keep quiet about Cheryl’s arrival, though even she hadn’t expected the crowd to take the direction that they did- hence why she further felt the need to silence them and let Cheryl know that people were looking out for her here. 

Similar to how she reacted to Jane’s offer earlier, Cheryl’s surprise was only visible for a moment before she was given the same tiny smile- though it was beginning to look more and more fake to Kate. 

“Uhm, thank you- but I think I’ll stick with the empty tent.”

Whatever frustrations Kate might have been feeling towards the small blonde wouldn’t dare show up on her face, sticking with her signature warm and award-winning smile.

“Well if you happen to change your mind, feel free to let me know!”

Cheryl didn’t say anything in response, giving Kate the same guarded stare she had given everyone else since she first arrived. As Dwight shuffled back into his tent, Jane knelt down beside Kate and murmured close to her.

“Don’t feel bad about Cheryl over there- I have a feeling that one’s going to be a hard nut to crack- but if anyone’s got the heart to get through to her it’s probably you.”

Kate couldn’t help but giggle at that statement. “Says the woman who got me to put my ex-boyfriend on blast during your show when I was only _seventeen!_ ”

Jane chuckled in response. “True- but you’ve always had a way with touching people’s hearts that even I can’t compare to.”

Kate tried her best not to frown at Jane’s statement, to which she easily succeeded. On one hand, it was nice to have someone around like Jane who knew her personally from her old life- before she was taken by The Entity. 

On another, she didn’t like how Jane was able to remind her just how much she detested her old life. Talking to Jane sometimes made Kate feel like she was back on her talk show, trying to promote her latest album and say something that wasn’t too personal but just personal enough to make her look adorable. 

Forcing herself to sacrifice her childhood while also never truly growing up for the sake of keeping her country music relatable to masses of young teens needing validation for their feelings.

Something she still couldn’t ever seem to give herself, despite all of the sleepless nights and handwritten songs trying to do that very thing. 

Yet just like before, Jane always had a way of knowing which smiles Kate was faking. “Still no luck with writing that fourth album?”

Kate finally allowed her face to fall as she looked down at the blank leather book sitting in her lap. “I did have most of the songs for the next album written before I was snatched by The Entity- but my muse just doesn’t seem to ever come around when I’m here.”

Kate was hoping with all she could that nobody noticed the desperation creeping into her voice.

Jane placed a hand on her chin and thought for a moment before she seemed to find a helpful response. “Maybe what you need to do is backtrack a little bit in order to find her again.”

Kate felt her stomach flip at the mentioning of her muse as a _her,_ but she pushed that feeling aside to try and understand what Jane was trying to tell her. 

“My songwriting inspiration before always came from my need to tell stories- either I’d make them up on my own or I’d base them off of stories that have already been told- but I like to change the endings.”

Kate stared at the various patterns flickering from the fire as she spoke, trying her hardest not to sound too conceited. She wanted to try and give a genuine explanation and not a stereotypical celebrity-interview-style answer.

Perhaps Jane was picking up on that based on her next response. “What kind of stories would inspire you to try and change the ending?”

Her response was surprisingly quick. “Mostly fairytales and folklore. I liked to work with stories that traditionally have very tragic endings, so Shakespeare was always an easy go-to.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Cheryl perk up at the mention of the old playwright’s name, turning her body to now watch the conversation at the campfire with interest. 

Kate immediately locked eyes with the newest survivor and made sure to show off a knowing smile. “Do we have a Shakespeare fan in the audience back there?”

Cheryl glanced away hesitantly, and for a moment Kate was afraid her teasing question had only pushed the other girl further away. But then she heard Cheryl softly clear her throat and looked back at the survivors with a glint in her eyes that Kate could only describe as scintillating.

_“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player- that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.”_

Kate couldn’t help but chuckle lightly- of course this girl was a fan of _Macbeth._ She couldn’t help but assume that Cheryl was probably an Edgar Allan Poe fan as well, just to fully complete the stereotype. 

“Not bad, but I’m more of a _Romeo and Juliet_ fan myself.”

Now it seemed like it was Cheryl’s turn to laugh at Kate’s admission. 

“I’m sorry- but I could never get into that one. To me it always seemed too fake and overly sentimental just for them to both die at the end.”

Kate was more than ready to meet Cheryl’s challenge, already pleased she was starting to get the quiet survivor to open up a little.

“Well have you ever heard my rendition?”

Cheryl’s face scrunched up apologetically. “I can’t say that I have- I’ve certainly heard of your music before but I wouldn’t really consider myself much of a country fan.”

Kate tried her best not to be surprised- even though it was clear Cheryl wasn’t exactly the kind of person in her primary demographic, _Love Story_ had been one of her biggest hits of all time.

“Well that’s understandable- I just happen to like stories where I can turn tragedies into happy endings. It makes all of the suffering the characters go through feel worth it in the end.”

Kate followed her declaration with what she knew to be one of her signature heartwarming smiles, which was almost instantly shot down by the look of utter disbelief from Cheryl’s face. 

“Suffering is a fact of life. Either you learn to deal with that, or you go under.”

Cheryl’s cold and cutting tone fell upon each survivor at the campfire like a wave. All except Kate, who found a way to take the girl’s words to heart and also shoot back without missing a beat.

“I’d say that _is_ how I deal with it- by finding a way to turn that pain into something beautiful.”

She couldn’t help but wonder if it was her words or the intensity of her stare that caused Cheryl to grow quiet, tilting her head so that her blonde bangs fell over her eyes and her face became unreadable. 

So much for helping the new survivor open up a little.

Yet Kate didn’t feel bad about it, she knew all too well how hopeless their situation seemed. How there was little to no morale across the nearly dozens of survivors that occupied The Entity’s realm. How Kate was the only one that ever really believed there was still a chance of ever leaving this place for good. 

No matter how Kate truly felt sometimes- she knew that her ability to inspire hope was her one and only talent that was actually worth something around her- and she’d be damned before she ever let that light of hope within her fade. 

Jane was practically beaming as she gestured over to Kate. “See right there, that’s the kind of positive contributions that we need to see more of around here!”

“I thought it was stupid-”

“Well Nea, that’s the kind of negative contributions that we should probably see less of around here-”

Laughter could be heard amongst many of the survivors at the bickering exchange between Jane and Nea. Kate almost thought she even heard a soft giggle come from Cheryl, but perhaps she was mistaken.

“Well Jane, I appreciate the help in trying to inspire me, but I think I’m better off getting some rest for now. Maybe something will come to me later.”

Kate genuinely was tired, but she was also looking for a way out of admitting she still couldn’t come up with anything worth writing down in her book. She stood up and waved everybody at the campfire a goodnight (despite it always being night), yet something caused her to stop and call out to Cheryl again before she turned to leave for her tent.

“You haven’t slept at all since you got here, could I interest you at all in joining me- in your own tent that is?”

Kate quickly tagged on that last part after realizing how forward she must have sounded, trying her best not to flush in embarrassment and play her statement off as mere hospitality. Cheryl’s guard seemed to be back up however as she simply glanced back at Kate for a single heartbeat and shook her head slightly. 

“I’m good, but thanks.”

She debated in her head for a moment if this was worth fighting the other girl about. On one hand, Cheryl looked absolutely exhausted. But she also made it clear with her body language that she didn’t want anything to do with Kate for awhile, so the songbird merely sighed in defeat and trudged her way over to her tent for some rest. 

Each of the survivors slept on short bales of hay that were generated by The Entity, with enough room for about four ‘beds’ at the most in each tent. There was also a scarce supply of old wool blankets that were taken from various past trials, and it was usually a rule of thumb that every survivor only got one blanket per bed.

Kate was sure to stay quiet when she entered her tent, trying her best not to wake Yui or Zarina who were already asleep. She noticed that the other two survivor’s beds seemed to be slightly closer to each other than Kate could last recall, and she made a point to ask them about that when she woke. 

She stretched out and got comfortable on her own hay bale, resting her head on an old bunched up t-shirt she had taken from a previous trial. Some nights it took Kate longer than she’d like to admit to fall asleep, but thankfully rest came easily to the young country singer that night.

Nightmares were incredibly common amongst the survivors, but Kate was lucky enough to not deal with them too often.

“Yo Kate, it looks like you’re up!”

She only had time to bolt up from her bed at the sound of Zarina’s voice and exchange a brief look of worry with the other woman before Kate could see nothing but a thick black fog- she didn’t even know how long she’d been asleep.

Kate always hated teleporting in between realms for trials via The Entity. It only lasted for a very split second, but during that one instant it felt as if her entire body was on fire.

But in the very next moment she found herself feeling soft grass under her feet, a gentle breeze flowing through the air that almost felt peaceful until Kate opened her eyes and took in the thick fog that seemed to suck all of the beauty from the Yamaoka Estate.

“Well that felt… absolutely fantastic-”

Kate whirled around to see Cheryl standing behind her, practically trembling. Her sarcastic remark would have normally made Kate smile if it wasn’t for the way the small blonde had her arms holding herself so tightly, fingers digging deep into her upper arms. She had noticed by now that Cheryl always seemed to have a slight forward slouch in her posture, even now as she stood stiff as a board.

Cheryl looked up at Kate with that same indescribable look on her face from when they first met eyes back at the campfire, yet it quickly changed to something of fear and anxiousness. 

The sight made the hopeful songbird’s heart ache with empathy, and she immediately wanted to reach out and give Cheryl some kind of physical reassurance. But Kate knew better, and she figured that was probably the last thing the new survivor probably wanted right now. 

So she tried to comfort Cheryl with the best tool she had in her arsenal, her words.

“The teleporting is a little uncomfortable at first, but I promise you’ll get used to it. This will all get a lot easier to deal with in time, I promise.”

The fear on Cheryl’s face hardened back out into her usual guarded look, and Kate was grateful to see her start to visibly relax a little. 

“I’m sorry you have to deal with your second trial so soon after your first one Cheryl, but you can stick with me and I can help walk you through it a bit more if you’d like?”

Kate took note of how the stiffness in Cheryl’s arms eased briefly at the sound of her own name, but still surprised the taller woman with how quick she responded.

“I get that your whole thing is being nice to everyone, but you don’t have to go out of your way at all for me Kate. I don’t want to put you in any extra danger just because I’m inexperienced at this.”

Kate wasn’t entirely convinced that she was telling the complete truth when Cheryl referred to herself as ‘inexperienced’, but everything else about her sentiment sounded sincere. It was a concept that completely confused Kate, that Cheryl was willing to put herself in more harm’s way just to avoid putting any potential burden on anybody else.

But Kate was just as quick on her feet, and saw her window of opportunity to win Cheryl over.

“Then how about we view it as you helping me- I’m still not very good at repairing generators quickly and I remember Nea mentioned you having a bit of a knack for them. Perhaps consider it a mutually beneficial partnership?”

Cheryl still didn’t look entirely convinced, but she did give a slow nod of her head and began to follow Kate as she made her way across the lawn in front of the Sanctum of Wrath. The lawn was littered with many stone statues that were shorter than both survivors but were also very wide.

“Those are great for hiding from the killer if you can get low enough to the ground.” Kate tried to explain in a hushed whisper as she gestured to the statues. She wasn’t entirely sure if Cheryl could hear her, but she didn’t want to get any closer to the blonde without making her uncomfortable- and she certainly didn’t want to raise her volume and risk alerting the killer of their location.

Kate tried her best to tread quickly but quietly as she ran up the long stone steps of the ancient building, now covered in overgrowth. It was easy to spot Cheryl still following her from the sight of her bright white vest out of the corner of her eye.

The pair of survivors made their way to the top and entered the sanctum, Kate stepping over a broken wall just on the inside and turning towards the first generator- one that she had remembered being here from previous trials. She knelt down and started to work on the repairs, slightly disappointed when she saw Cheryl kneel down on the other side- now with the generator in between them. 

Kate couldn’t talk to Cheryl now while still being able to keep her voice down, and there were so many things she wanted to inform her about. Hex totems and dull totems, how to evade a killer once they give chase and in turn how to use windows and pallets as _’Windows of Opportunity’_.

Instead the two girls fell into silence as they made quick work of the generator, a chime ringing out as the machine began to glow a gold aura.

“Nice!” Kate fist pumped the air in excitement, never quite able to get over the satisfaction of a successfully repaired generator. Even Cheryl had a faint smile on her face as she watched Kate’s brief celebration, before both girls immediately got up and made their way back towards the exit.

Cheryl was just a few steps ahead of Kate, hurrying her way out onto the front steps of the sanctum before she suddenly stopped dead in her tracts- the taller girl having to grab a support beam next to her to keep herself from crashing straight into Cheryl.

“How is that real…?” The other survivor’s face was slack with shock, whispering out the question as if Kate wasn’t even there next to her. 

“Hey, what do you mean? Are you okay-” Kate twisted herself around so that she was now in front of Cheryl and tried to study her face in concern before turning to follow the direction of her gaze off in the distance. 

She finally found her target, and began to partially understand why Cheryl might have been so immobilized in shock. 

Emanating the red light of a killer stood a massive hulking figure. Yet the most intimidating feature about the new killer wasn’t the blood-stained butcher's apron nor the impossibly large greatsword it wielded in its hands-

It was the enormous steel frame over its head that came to a tall and angular point at the top, just like a pyramid. 

Kate was still the first to recover from the brief trance and look back at Cheryl in concern- yet the blonde’s head was now lowered slightly with her bangs draping over her eyes, her mouth suddenly twisting into a snarl.

“His name is Pyramid Head- The Executioner. But why is he _here?_ ”

Cheryl’s growl came out low and dangerous, and Kate wished she could help find the answer to that question- or ask her own of how the younger woman even knew the killer’s name. 

All of those words died in her soul when The Executioner suddenly plunged his sword into the ground with an ear-ringing _clang,_ and began to drag it along the ground behind him as he marched his way towards the steps of the sanctum in clear pursuit of the survivors staring down at him from the top. 

Yet the thing that shocked Kate most of all was when Cheryl suddenly shouldered her way past the helpless songwriter and stood to shield with her body between Kate and the new killer that approached them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy- I wasn't expecting this chapter to be even longer than the first. Just as a warning I wouldn't expect future chapters to be as long as these first two- I just needed to get some more introductory things out of the way for our characters/setting and set things up for current and future plots. 
> 
> If you couldn't tell, Kate is very much supposed to be this universe's version of Taylor Swift, though from a much earlier era (think 2010-2012 Taylor Swift). 
> 
> With all of that said thanks for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts! Hope you're looking forward to more Kate and Cheryl just as much as I am!
> 
> (Sorry for the cliffhanger btw ^_^)


	3. willow

Cheryl had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do now. 

She immediately knew where the Pyramid Head monster was from just by laying eyes on him, even if she had never seen him before in her life. It must have been from Alessa, she somehow knew about everything that ever went down at _that place._

The thought made her cringe. Cheryl hated any kind of reminder that they were one and the same, even if it was technically true.

But on some level, even if it was deep within her very soul- she knew that they were different. That Alessa Gillespie was merely a fraction of some dead girl’s soul lingering within Cheryl’s own. 

Even after everything, Cheryl was still her own person. 

Someone who was well versed in dealing with these kinds of monsters.

“What are you doing? We have to run, _now-_ ”

Cheryl shook her head at Kate’s shrill statement, trying to find a quick way to reassure her when the heartbeat sound of The Executioner’s terror radius started to pound all around her. 

The cold realization finally struck the new survivor- this wasn’t like a typical monster from the Otherworld. He had been changed into a killer by The Entity, just like The Nurse from Cheryl’s first trial.

She was still set on protecting Kate from this killer no matter what, especially since Cheryl was aware the famous singer was only standing behind her to try and provide help. The Executioner suddenly thrust his sword up from the ground as a wave of spikes shot up from the ground and came at the two survivors in a straight line. 

Without thinking, Cheryl whirled around and shoved Kate back into the building behind them and out of the line of fire- crying out herself as several jagged spikes sliced around her legs.

“I’ve got this!” Was all Cheryl yelled out to Kate before she started racing down the stone steps, zipping past The Executioner. Her plan was thankfully working, as the killer seemed to huff out and turn to chase Cheryl down the steps and out into the lawn. 

Distract the killer while the others repair generators- that seemed like the best way for Cheryl to be helpful for her teammates now that she had gotten The Executioner’s attention. She had never been chased by a killer before, but she was hoping she’d learn fairly quickly.

She was already off to a wonderful start when she tripped over the broken ground left behind from The Executioner’s sword trail, the barbed wire somehow emerging from the broken ground getting caught on Cheryl’s boots.

The young veteran of terror cursed loudly at the stinging from her scraped up knees, only adding to the rest of the blood trailing down the deep cuts all over her legs. She frantically stumbled back up to her feet and started running in any direction that was in front of her, narrowly missing a dangerous swing of The Executioner’s blade aimed directly at her head. 

Cheryl was running as fast as she could to evade the killer, the constant rapid heartbeat sound made her feel like she was going mad. She felt a panic that was different than her last trial with The Nurse, this time her thoughts were racing at a speed she had only experienced once before. 

“Dammit, what did you do to me?”

Cheryl knew in the back of her mind that turning to scream at the killer was a terrible idea, especially since she was making a pretty good distance on him. Yet all of these images and thoughts kept flashing in her mind as she was trying to run: her father, The Order, so many others whom she’d never met before in her life- that entire town where her demons would never rest-

All of their suffering was her fault. Their blood was on her hands. 

No, no that can’t be right-

Cheryl hadn’t realized when she had stopped running, or when The Executioner had caught up to her. She only remembered the skull splitting pain as the killer’s large rusty blade came down hard upon her head, and she could see nothing else but blood all around her. 

“Hey! You-hoo… rise and shine kiddo!”

Cheryl’s eyes fluttered open, letting out a soft groan at the throbbing pain coming from her shoulders. There were jagged and rusting spikes all around her, and it took a second for her to realize that she was trapped in some kind of metal cage. Suspended in the air at the same height as she would have been if she was on the hook, but with two blades impaled through both of her shoulders instead of a single hook. 

She looked down at the older male voice that had awoken her to find a man in a dirty sport coat with dark sunglasses and a baseball cap. Cheryl wondered why anybody would wear sunglasses in a place already so dimly lit and dark if not to look ridiculous. 

“Took me a while to find you, this new cage-thing kept moving around the map. But let’s get you out of here before Kate gets herself killed trying to find you-”

Cheryl sighed at the mention of Kate’s name. The last thing she wanted was for the singer to put herself in even more danger trying to help her, but it seemed like Kate’s infectious niceness would just be something the new survivor would have to put up with for a while. 

It wouldn’t bother her so much if she felt like she actually deserved such kindness from Kate.

The man had to jiggle at the cage’s door a few times before it finally opened, and he gently helped her down and began to dress her wounds. An injured cry rang out in the distance, and Cheryl felt her face involuntarily tighten into a scowl as she recognized the sound as Kate’s voice. 

“Somehow killers can always see when we get each other down from hooks, the same must be true for these cages. Kate must have taken a hit to get the killer’s attention off of us and onto her so that I’d have time to patch you up.”

Cheryl’s frown only deepened at the man’s explanation, the sting of guilt that she was far more familiar with coming back to her. 

“Does she act like this with all of the new survivors?”

She was confused as to why the man seemed hesitant to answer, his eyes unreadable beneath his sunglasses. 

“Uh, well more or less. But I wouldn’t worry too much about Kate, she’s great at running the killer for a while. You can call me Ace by the way.”

“Cheryl Mason.”

Her own reply seemed to trail off as she kept staring in the direction Kate’s cry had come from, but she still got up to follow Ace after he finished bandaging her up and wandered off to a more secluded corner of the trial area. 

“You can get started on this gen here, I see a chest with my name on it-”

Cheryl knelt down to start connecting different colored wires together, hoping eventually one of them would bring power back to the generator. She looked over at where Ace was crouched down by a rock just to her left, rummaging through what looked like a large wooden truck.

“Bingo! A purple medkit!” Ace laughed out in triumph before joining Cheryl at the generator and setting the medkit down at her side.

“I think this will probably be put to better use with you- especially if you and Dolly Parton over there keep getting yourselves hurt-”

“There you are!”

Footsteps skidded to a halt just behind Cheryl as Kate knelt down next to her and started repairing a generator along with them, acting as if she was completely unaware of the gushing wound that ran deep across her abdomen. 

“Now why would you run in and get yourself hurt like that? Are you okay? I know Ace doesn’t do the best job at patching people up so I can take a second look at your injuries if you’d like-”

“I’m fine-” Cheryl quickly cut the other girl off, feeling very overwhelmed at Kate fussing over her in front of Ace. “I feel like I should be the one asking you these questions anyways-”

Cheryl didn’t like how quickly Kate brushed her off when she made a short gesture to the songwriter’s own injury with her hand.

“Oh don’t you worry about me- I run with killers for the others all the time! It took me a bit to learn how this new killer likes to chase, but I got the hang of it real quick. I did manage to lose him after all- even slammed a pallet down on the bastard-”

Normally Cheryl might have thought to throw a teasing remark Kate’s way, but instead she thought it was more important to let her and Ace know about the new killer.

Even if it made her vulnerable, it was worth it if she could help them.

“Just make sure not to walk on the trail his sword leaves behind, it’s somehow connected to the place he’s from- the place where I’m from.”

Cheryl kept her eyes firmly on the generator’s wires in front of her and pretended not to hear Kate’s surprised gasp.

“His original purpose was to manifest as one’s own guilt for their sins, to carry out some twisted form of justice and execute those who were tormented by their own guilt. If you touch the barbed wire left behind from his trail, you’ll feel that same torment. That’s how he’s able to send you into a Cage of Atonement.”

“And here I thought The Entity was just trying to adopt a little more style into its hooks-”

Cheryl heard Kate chuckle lightly at Ace’s remark, just as the generator chimed and lit up with a gold aura. 

“Well, Tapp and I managed to get a generator done while you girls did yours earlier, so that only leaves two more. Good luck now!”

She expected the weight of what she just revealed to make both of the other survivors uncomfortable with her, so she wasn’t surprised when Ace quickly vanished. She was surprised however when she rounded the corner and started looking around for another generator, only to find that Kate was following her. Cheryl realized it was probably because she had the medkit that Ace had given her, and Kate’s wound was starting to leave a trail of blood for the killer to follow. 

“Oh here, I can bandage that up for you if that’s okay-”

Cheryl bit the inside of her own cheek and internally yelled at herself for how awkward her offer sounded, but had to strain herself even further to keep appearing normal when Kate immediately crouched down and lifted up her tank top just enough to expose the gash on her bare stomach. 

There was absolutely no denying that Kate Denson was a very beautiful person in almost every aspect. Even back in her old life Cheryl could vaguely remember seeing the celebrity on magazine covers and finding her rather attractive, despite not having any other interest in her or her music. 

Cheryl just wished she was able to think about pretty much anything else while she was carefully wrapping several layers of bandages around Kate’s stomach, especially since they were in a murderous sacrificial blood-trial where there were far more life-threatening obstacles to worry about besides the country singer’s surprisingly toned abs. 

Cheryl closed up the medkit once she was finished, standing and offering her hand to help Kate up without even thinking. She pretended not to notice the warm smile on the other woman’s face as she took Cheryl’s hand and murmured out a soft word of thanks once she was back on her feet. 

The almost tranquil moment only lasted for a few heartbeats as the two searched for another generator together, eventually finding an unrepaired generator in the Yamaoka Estate’s version of the shack Cheryl had first met Quentin in. 

“Your hands were absolutely freezing by the way-”

Cheryl’s mouth was instantly agape and was ready to fumble out an apology when she noticed Kate’s teasing smile. “Maybe if we get out of this you could finally join us at the fire and warm up a little?”

Realizing that this was just Kate doing her whole _southern hospitality_ thing again, Cheryl merely sighed and shook her head.

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m good.”

Cheryl wasn’t so sure why the thought of sitting up so close to the campfire with the other survivors made her so apprehensive until Kate finally vocalized it into words.

“Are you afraid of fire Cheryl?”

She felt her body freeze while her hands were still inside of the unrepaired generator, a brief flash of a memory that wasn’t really hers bore into her mind. 

“I uh, I guess you could say I had a bad experience with fire in a past life-”

She was hoping her reply didn’t sound sarcastic, as she was technically telling the honest truth. 

Yet if Kate was going to say anything in reply, it was drowned out by the howl of someone getting struck down by the killer. Cheryl could vaguely see the soft red glow of a man’s aura on the ground off in the distance. 

“That was Detective Tapp…” Kate whispered out in worry.

The red aura in the distance was suddenly lifted off the ground and disappeared. Moments later, Cheryl could spot the aura again just above the ground as his low wail of terror rang out from the hook. 

“I’m going to get him down.” She had already stopped working on the generator and stood up to start leaving when Kate turned to reach out her hand and try to stop her.

“Wait- you don’t have any experience unhooking people and you’ve already been hooked once before from the cage. Let me just quick finish this repair and we can try and get him together-”

While Kate was probably right, Cheryl elected not to listen and was already heading off in the direction of the hook. How else was she going to learn these things if she didn’t try them out on her own?

Cheryl carefully weaved her way through the grass and around various rocks and short wooden walls, trying her best to stay on the lookout in case the killer was near. Eventually she made it around the corner of a short wooden wall to find a uniformed police officer in a bullet-proof vest hanging with a rusty metal hook driven through his shoulder. 

Despite his painful predicament, the dark-skinned man still smiled when he saw Cheryl approach.

“You’re the new survivor, right? I’m Detective David Tapp, but you can just call me Tapp.”

“Cheryl Mason. I think it’s best if I wait until I’ve got you down before I ask if you’re okay-”

The detective tried to laugh but it was cut off by a harsh grunt of pain as Cheryl tried her best to lower him down from the hook quickly. The heartbeat sound of the terror radius started to quietly play around them, causing Cheryl to freeze and shove her half-used medkit into Tapp’s hands.

“You should go help Kate or Ace with the last two generators, I’ll lead The Executioner away.”

Cheryl felt a prickle of judgement as Tapp raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure? No offense, but your first chase earlier in the trial didn’t last too long.”

“Well, I’m only gonna get better with practice, and I need to get better if I can be useful during these trials.”

Tapp gave her a sad smile. “You’ve got guts Miss Mason, I’ll give you that. Just don’t be afraid to give any of us a shout if you need any-”

The Executioner’s trail of spikes suddenly shot out in a line at them, catching Cheryl first. She tried to push the detective out of the way, but the spikes slicing into her legs caused her to cry out and fall over. 

The young veteran of terror huffed out in frustration, shoving herself back onto her feet as Pyramid Head picked up Detective Tapp and slung him over his massive shoulder, not noticing a generator chime ring out.

“Let him go!” Cheryl yelled out, but the monster of judgement didn’t even acknowledge her as he shoved Tapp’s shoulder back through the hook. 

The Executioner finally turned towards Cheryl, and she readied herself to start running before a thin beam of light shot out from behind her and hit the killer right underneath the point of the steel frame on his head. 

“He’s stunned! Go grab Tapp!”

Cheryl wanted to turn back and ask Kate how a monster with a steel frame over his head could even be blinded by the beam of a flashlight, but in that moment she decided to trust Kate’s word and run past the incapacitated killer to grab Tapp down from the hook. She shivered slightly trying to weave her hands around The Entity’s claws that had formed around Tapp on the hook, but she managed to get the detective down safely. 

Yet Cheryl wasn’t sure how long Kate’s flashlight beam had stunned The Executioner, so when she saw the monster begin to move again out of the corner of her eye she immediately swerved to stand in between the killer and the fleeing Tapp. 

A painful scream tore its way out of Cheryl as she felt The Executioner’s blade cleave down the length of her back and slam her flat on the ground. She couldn’t tell how long she was on the ground, or if the faint cry she heard come from Kate was real or just the blood roaring in Cheryl’s ears. 

While her vision was still blurry from the pain, she could feel herself being lifted off of the ground by the back of her vest’s hood. Yet the uncomfortable sensation of getting slung over The Executioner’s shoulder was only for a mere instant as she was suddenly dropped and hit the ground with a soft _thud._

“That’s what you get for picking someone up in front of the girl with the flashlight!”

Cheryl still saw dark spots in front of her eyes, but she could vaguely make out the image of Kate pulling her up to her feet, clutching a fresh wound of her own in her side. 

“Ace finished the final gen and he’s opening the gate now, we have to move!”

Cheryl tried to take a few steps forward before the world got too blurry again and she felt herself falling. Her body felt too broken to feel embarrassed when she landed straight into Kate’s arms, heavily leaning into the other girl for support- using up all of her remaining strength to trudge her feet in whatever direction Kate was leading her in. 

She could see the opened exit gate clearly now, with Ace standing on the other side and motioning the girls to follow. They just barely managed to make it past the doors when Kate abruptly cried out and tumbled down behind Cheryl, The Executioner lifting his blade out of the songbird’s mangled shoulder. 

Cheryl looked back in dismay at the sight of Kate bleeding out in the grass, though it occurred to her in a sobering thought that most of the blood Kate’s clothes were soaked in was Cheryl’s. 

She wouldn’t let The Entity have her, not Kate. Not at the hands of the living and breathing conduite of her own past mistakes and demons. Kate deserved better.

Kate deserved to live.

That was the same moment Cheryl saw the singer’s flashlight roll over and tap the tip of her boot. Just a moment later her plan had been formed, kicking the flashlight up in the air with a flick of her boot and catching it with ease.

She waited until The Executioner had lifted Kate into the air and begun to sling her over his shoulder. Just like Kate had done before, she then clicked on the flashlight and shined it directly at the spot under the pointed tip of his frame. Cheryl tried to catch Kate as she was dropped, but had to stumble back and strain under the weight of the taller girl with Kate’s legs still dragging on the ground.

Another realization struck Cheryl as she handed Kate off to Ace, who was able to carry Kate properly as he retreated into the safety of the fog.

Where was Tapp?

“Tapp?” Cheryl called out from the fog, still unsure if she was far enough away to be safe from The Executioner if he chose to pursue her or the detective. 

She was unfortunately able to find out, as Tapp came running around the corner and attempted to run past the killer to rejoin the others. Instead he was met with a sword slashing across his chest.

Cheryl smirked and readied her flashlight to perform the same blinding action on Pyramid Head, only to have it completely wiped away at what happened instead.

Instead of slinging the detective over his shoulder, The Executioner picked him up by his throat, Rusting metal and barbed wire that could only be from Cheryl’s birth town rose from the ground and spiraled around Detective Tapp, entrapping him for Pyramid Head’s sword to pierce straight through his insides. The ruthless killer twisted the sword around inside the detective, followed by his lifeless corpse hitting the ground as the metal and barbed wire somehow faded away into the fog. 

Cheryl knew that much of the rage she felt towards the familiar monster was all her own, yet it still felt foreign when she turned to snarl back at the creature before backing up into the fog.

“Tell your friends back home that Alessa Gillespie sends her regards, _you bitch.”_

Tears of grief quickly threatened to spring into Cheryl’s eyes, but she made sure to shove all of her overwhelming emotions back down before she caught up to Ace and Kate.

She tried her best not to stumble to her knees as she knelt down next to Kate and help Ace bandage up her shoulder and side. The pain from her own injuries had been dulled by her adrenaline to save Kate and Tapp, but now threatened her with wave after wave of dizziness as she felt her own warm blood pool at her knees.

There was a deafening silence as they finished up the bandages on Kate, with both her and Ace gently turning Cheryl around and removing her vest to begin dressing her with bandages as well. After several more moments of silence, it was Ace that finally elected to break the tension.

“You must have a gut made of iron Cheryl. Kate and I have seen people get Memento Mori-ed many times before and even that just now made us both lose our lunch.”

Cheryl wasn’t sure how to explain that she’d witnessed far more gruesome acts of violence before, so instead she asked the first question that came to her mind, surprising herself with how weak her voice sounded.

“Memento Mori? Isn’t that a latin phrase about remembering your own mortality?”

“Sometimes if you’ve been hooked a couple of times before, the killer will just kill you themselves instead of giving you to The Entity. It’s as if they’re granted _permission_ or something."

Cheryl couldn’t help but notice the way Kate’s voice got progressively quieter as she spoke, her left hand clutching her right one tightly with her fingers pressed together.

“You still end up right back at camp once the trial’s over of course, but at least then you don’t have to worry about your soul being with The Entity at all, so there’s no waiting.”

By principle that should have made a Memento Mori more preferable as opposed to getting sacrificed, but the way Kate’s voice sounded like it was threatening to break didn’t leave Cheryl very convinced.

She wondered if Kate had been given a Memento Mori before.

Cheryl somehow felt a lot better once they had finished with her bandages, she was even able to stand up on her own. She noticed Kate had reached for her vest jacket and opened it up, holding it as if she was waiting to help Cheryl put it on her.

She was starting to feel touched at Kate’s continual gestures of kindness, which immediately unsettled her. Cheryl smiled apologetically before gently taking her vest back from Kate and sliding it over her own shoulders. She tried her best not to feel bad for rejecting Kate’s unspoken offer when she faintly heard the other woman sigh in annoyance.

It was when Kate stayed at a respectful distance for the rest of the walk back to the forest that Cheryl began to question if the country singer really did care about her, and wasn’t just pretending to be nice out of habit.

Even after she revealed she was from the same place as the monster who murdered Detective Tapp, Kate hadn’t even hesitated to look out for her both in and out of the trial.

It was a phenomenon that left Cheryl helplessly allured by her. Kate Denson was probably the last person from her earth that she had ever expected to feel this way about.

Cheryl couldn’t even describe _what_ exactly it was that she was feeling towards her, but she knew it made her reconsider all of the guards she was putting up between herself and the other survivors in this nightmare realm.

They were met with many smiles and cheers when they returned back to camp, which Cheryl tried her best to appreciate. She still found herself unable to meet the eyes of Detective Tapp when he smiled and waved at her from the campfire, the image of his insides on the stones of the Yamaoka Estate still burning bright in her memory.

“Hey, are you hungry at all? I wasn’t sure if you’d eaten at all since coming here, and there’s some bread over at the campfire-”

Cheryl turned and felt her head tilting curiously at Kate’s question, noticing some of the other nearby survivors looking surprised at how sheepish Kate had sounded as well.

Just this once, Cheryl was willing to give Kate the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was trying to be respectful of the smaller blonde’s boundaries.

She hadn’t realized how hungry she really was until she laid eyes on the loaf of bread being held in a blanket by a woman she recognized from the campfire before Cheryl had been pulled into her trial. Her stomach growled loud enough for Kate to hear, who let out a soft chuckle.

“I’m going to take that as a yes, would you like me to go grab you a slice?”

Kate was already taking a few steps in the direction of the campfire as she asked, just before Cheryl surprised them both and began to follow her.

The new survivor pretended not to notice all of the eyes on her, keeping her own firmly on the pattern of the campfire’s flames as she sat on the log that was farthest away from the fire but still in group with all of the others.

Kate promptly chose to sit on the farthest end of the same log as Cheryl, taking a couple of bread slices from the woman who politely introduced herself as Zarina and handed one to Cheryl.

The rest of that ‘evening’ was surprisingly pleasant for Cheryl. She quietly listened to the various conversations between the survivors at the fire- taking note of how both Ace and Kate kept the knowledge of Cheryl’s relation to The Executioner to themselves when the new killer became the topic of conversation- and ate many more slices of bread that were offered to her.

Cheryl tried her very best to stay awake as long as she could- sleeping was the sole activity that she detested the most. The nightmares were far too constant and incessant for her to handle at times.

But the exhaustion from her first two trials as a survivor in this realm along with her various injuries and treatments caught up to her far too quickly. It must have been the fourth or fifth time she had nearly nodded off during another one of Bill’s war stories that Cheryl faintly heard Kate murmuring her name to Jane Romero, who had at some point taken Zarina’s spot next to them. She was too tired to remember when.

“Okay Miss Mason- It’s time for a little tough love. As Miss Denson here so eloquently put it not moments prior- you better get your adorable little ass over to bed before we pick you up and take you there ourselves.” 

Jane’s amused smile while she spoke was enough to reassure Cheryl it was not a dangerous threat- though her brain kept tripping over the concept of Kate referring to her as adorable.

“Alright, alright- I’m going.”

Cheryl held up her hands in surrender and made sure to give each woman a tired smile before getting up and making her way over to the final tent on the far right side of camp. It was the only vacant tent available, so Cheryl assumed it was the one she was offered earlier.

Inside there were four fairly large bales of hay that were presumably for sleeping on, so Cheryl laid down on the one farthest from the tent’s entrance with her head resting in her own elbow.

No matter how utterly exhausted Cheryl was, it would always take quite a while for the young veteran of terror to fall asleep. She was also rather cold, as she admittedly found the campfire to feel nice and warm- as long as she didn’t think too much about her past life getting scorched alive to the bone.

Cheryl wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep, but she always remembered the nightmares. Running from creatures more twisted than anything hell could muster, the feeling of a horrific demon writhing around inside of her- the soul crushing guilt over the sight of her father dead in that chair… knowing now that he would still be alive and well if she had never entered his life.

On some rare occasions there would be a nightmare from Alessa. A distant memory, one that shouldn’t feel as real as it did- but always one that felt far too haunting for Cheryl to even think about while she was awake.

_Why do you cling to this corrupt world? You know that only God can save them._

Cheryl woke with a loud gasp, immediately trying her best to quiet her heavy breathing even though she knew she was alone in her tent. Her shivering quickly subsided at the feeling of wool on her skin, and she realized that someone must have gotten her a blanket and draped it over her while she slept.

She found the thought oddly soothing, even though normally the idea of someone doing something to her while she slept would have given her a panic attack. Maybe it was due to Cheryl already having a pretty good idea as to who had come and given her the blanket.

She turned her head and found her face hitting a bunched up t-shirt that must have been placed under her as a makeshift pillow.

It smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg, and it caused Cheryl to smile faintly and close her eyes once more- forgetting Claudia’s ominous words and feeling brave enough to face the demons of her slumber once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd end things off on a nicer note this time, especially after the cliffhanger last chapter. I was hoping to make this story a slow burn, but I can already feel myself growing impatient- we'll have to wait and see how I decide to end up pacing this. But as always, thank you for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts! I'll hopefully be back with chapter four soon!


	4. Treacherous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt the need to add a quick little disclaimer for this chapter- it doesn't have a happy ending. Just keep in mind that in the realm of Dead By Daylight, death is never permanent. Just a little traumatizing sometimes. Also I thought I'd add a quick trigger warning for those who suffer from panic attacks and PTSD- this chapter may get a wee bit rough.

Kate was relieved to finally see Cheryl heading off to get some sleep. She was proud of Cheryl for spending time up at the campfire with her and the others, especially after learning about the girl’s pyrophobia. Earlier Kate had been afraid that she’d overstepped Cheryl’s boundaries after the trial, and was grateful that didn’t seem to be entirely the case. 

She could tell that there was a small amount of trust between her and Cheryl now, and the thought made Kate finally feel like she had accomplished something here that actually mattered. 

“So Cheryl Mason…” 

“What about her?” Kate didn’t mean to sound as hostile as she did at Jane’s inquiry, but it still caused the former talk show host to hold her hands up in defense.

“I was just curious if you’ve gotten her to open up a little. She seems a lot more comfortable around here now, and all it took was a single trial with you.”

Kate wasn’t sure what exactly Jane was trying to imply. Cheryl didn’t really open up very much during their last trial together- well at least not verbally. Kate had seen a lot of gruesome injuries throughout her many trials in this realm, but the way The Executioner tore open the smaller girls back and she just _shrugged it off_ when Kate needed a flashlight rescue still left her in awe. 

It still shocked Kate just how many times Cheryl was willing to throw herself in harm’s way to protect the other survivors, and yet her body had felt so incredibly _fragile_ when Kate held her in her arms.

But Kate still wanted to give Jane an honest answer- or at least an answer that was technically true while still keeping the secret of Cheryl’s relation to The Executioner to herself. 

“Cheryl seems to have been through some pretty rough stuff in her past- the violence and suffering of these trials don’t really seem to phase her. But I also don’t think it’s any of our business for us to try and get her secrets out of her.”

Jane nodded thoughtfully and hummed in agreement. 

“I’m just still confused how somebody so small and cute can still be so reckless towards her own safety- she’s so guarded towards everyone but also so caring at the same time-”

Kate stopped mid sentence when she noticed the way Jane raised her eyebrows curiously at her.

“What?”

“So you think Cheryl is both cute _and_ adorable?”

Kate found herself sputtering, irritated with the way Jane’s remark made her face grow warm.

“Yes, I do- and I think that’s something most of us can agree on! I mean come on, have you all actually seen her-”

“Kate’s right, lil’ Cheryl is quite the cutie- but you seem to be the only one here who ain’t the least bit troubled by all that darkness she’s got goin’ ‘round inside of her-”

Kate turned to glare at David King as he spoke up, knowing full well that the english brawler was the last person here who should be judging other people in such a way. 

“Well, maybe I seem to be the only one around here who isn’t the least bit troubled by trying to see the light that she’s _actually_ ‘got goin’ ‘round inside of her’.”

Kate immediately stood up, figuring it was best if she left the survivors at the campfire to reconsider their judgements of Cheryl if they caused the usually polite and easy-going Kate Denson to snap at them. 

She marched off behind the tents and decided that she needed to take a walk to calm herself down. Normally nature was always the thing that soothed her, grounded her. 

There really wasn’t a whole lot of nature in the desolate forest that surrounded their camp, but it would have to suffice. 

There weren’t that many activities in general for survivors to do outside of the trials. Most people usually sat at the campfire and told stories of their former lives to one another, others like Claudette would focus on honing their areas of expertise for the sake of helping out the others- whether that was cooking or sewing or helping heal up the injured with whatever supplies they could get their hands on. 

There was also a small lake just a short walk behind their camp where they could wash their clothes or bathe themselves, but there was an unspoken warning between everyone when it came to swimming too far away from the shore or even trying to cross the small body of water- something about a guy named Jason who wasn’t able to make it into The Entity’s trials.

The thought suddenly struck Kate as she passed behind Cheryl’s tent- nobody had shown her where they kept their blankets, so she most likely went to bed without one. 

Kate immediately turned herself around and ducked into the flap of her own shared tent, grabbing her blanket and her makeshift t-shirt pillow. She figured it only made sense to give Cheryl her blanket until the other girl could pick one out for herself, and Kate had plenty of other spare clothes lying around that she could make another pillow with. She wasn’t planning on sleeping very much for a while anyways- her shoulder was throbbing too painfully from the way The Executioner nearly amputated her.

The former singer moved as slowly and as carefully as she could once she made it through the flap of Cheryl’s tent. The way the small blonde kept nearly nodding off at the campfire earlier reminded her of Quentin- always refusing to sleep and only sleeping as little as he could when he had to. 

Kate realized why when she looked down and saw Cheryl’s sleeping face in such a deep frown, clearly distraught with whatever dream she was currently having. Kate thought about waking her, but she was afraid Cheryl would be hesitant to get the rest her recovering body needed if she woke up from her nightmare now. 

Cheryl suddenly began to shiver, which troubled Kate as she quickly moved to try and drape her wool blanket over the sleeping girl as gently as she could. Cheryl’s body seemed to relax slightly after that, or her body was trying to cower in fear from whatever nightmare she was having, Kate couldn’t tell. 

Now came the trickier part, as Kate gently lifted Cheryl’s head with one hand and slid her t-shirt pillow underneath it with the other. Kate was surprised how soft Cheryl’s hair actually was, as her bangs always seemed to look rather messy. Not to mention her clearly dark brown roots growing in revealed that her blonde hair was definitely not her natural color. 

Yet Kate knew better than to let her fingers linger, growing aware that she was probably staring for far longer than an awake Cheryl would have been comfortable with- so she promptly led herself out of the tent and closed the flap back up slowly.

She turned to find that Zarina had been watching her leave with a hand on her hip and her head cocked curiously.

“Oh not you too Zee-”

Zarina let out a soft laugh before she spoke. 

“It is pretty obvious that you’re treating her differently than the way you treated me when I first arrived. But I’m not saying that like I’m jealous or anything either, I just think it’s cute how quickly you’ve come to care for her.”

Kate crossed her arms defensively. “I care about all of you guys. I just knew that Cheryl needed some extra help in order for her to feel as comfortable around here as the rest of us, both in and out of the trials.”

The way Zarina’s face seemed to fall puzzled Kate.

“Is that all you feel towards Cheryl?”

“Yes.”

Kate pressed out her answer without even thinking, still confused as to what exactly Zarina was implying-

Before it finally clicked. 

And Kate decided that now was as good of a time as ever to break the only promise she ever made to herself. 

The only part of herself she’d vowed to keep locked away forever. 

“There’s something I should probably tell you Zee-” Kate was practically mumbling as she opened the flap of her shared tent with Zarina and quickly ushered the confused filmmaker inside. 

She sat facing Zarina on her bed of hay, her hands clasped together as the other woman sat down on her own bed to face Kate the same way.

“So Zee, were you trying to ask me if I had any romantic feelings for Cheryl?”

Zarina immediately looked away and rubbed at the back of her neck.

“Look, I’m sorry if my assumption made you uncomfortable at all Kate- but I wondered if I was catching a certain vibe from you, and obviously I was wrong but-”

“No you’re right.”

Zarina’s arms fell as her eyes widened. 

“Wait what?”

“I am gay, but I don’t have any feelings for Cheryl.”

If Zarina was the least bit unconvinced, it hadn’t shown up on her face.

“Wait wait wait- you mean to tell me that _Kate Denson_ is exclusively into women? But you have like, a million songs about dating guys- it’s like your whole brand!”

“I wouldn’t say that’s my _whole_ brand- the majority of my unofficial songs that I used to perform around bars back home aren’t about dating at all. But when my record label signed me back when I was still just a kid- they wanted me to write and sing about the experiences that my demographic would find most relatable…” 

Kate had placed air quotes with her hands around the word ‘demographic’. She remembered being just sixteen and wanting to write country music about her love and life and experiences so badly- she figured back then that changing the pronouns on her music to make it heterosexual was a small price to pay for the chance to make it big on the charts. 

She hadn’t realized just how popular her love songs would become, and how her public narrative of being ‘boy crazy’ was constructed by her management team completely overnight. Pretty soon teenage Kate found herself in one fake PR relationship after the next- but the various boys were always very sweet and understanding of her situation. 

What was the harm in selling another part of her soul to make others happy with her music anyways?

“But Zee, if and when we all manage to find a way to get out of this hell and back to our world- you have to promise me you won’t tell anybody else.”

“Can I tell Yui?”

Kate thought about that for a moment before nodding her head. Yui was just as much her friend as Zarina was. 

“Well I guess there’s something I have to tell you as well Kate, about Yui and I…”

Kate realized what Zarina was about to say instantly based on the way her cheeks flushed, letting out an excited squeal and bouncing up and down on her bed.

“Oh my gosh I’m so happy for you two!”

Kate leaped across the small space in between them and threw her arms around Zarina excitedly.

“So, you’re cool if we start sleeping together in the same tent as you?”

“I am _absolutely_ okay with it! I love love, and you guys make the perfect couple!”

Zarina let out a relieved laugh and endured Kate’s bone-crushing hug for a few more moments before the songbird decided to be merciful and let her go.

“I was about to head out on a walk, so you and Yui could have some alone time here for a little while if you’d like me to send her in-”

Kate smiled at the way Zarina blushed and bowed her head low, embarrassed by Kate’s offer. 

“If Yui’s up for it, that would be nice-”

“You’ve got it!”

Kate gave the young filmmaker a thumbs up, but stopped just before she could finish opening the flap of their tent as Zarina asked a question of her own.

“So wait a second, are you _sure_ that you don’t have any feelings for Cheryl?”

Kate gave her friend a sad smile, hoping it only gave away the mere surface of the pain that was hidden underneath. 

“I wouldn’t even know it if I did Zee, let alone know what I could ever hope to do about it.”

As Kate closed the flap of the tent and went over to the campfire to fetch Yui for Zarina, she made the difficult decision to promptly bury any and all feelings of liberation that had risen from Kate’s conversation with Zarina.

As if Kate’s admission had never even happened. 

Her walk through the forest was actually fairly brief, as she usually went on walks when there were thoughts she was trying to reflect on, not thoughts that she was trying to forget. Normally it was ill-advised to walk through the forest by yourself, as it was easy to get tricked by The Entity and find yourself lost for the equivalent of days.

But Kate was different, she somehow always knew her way around the forest like the back of her hand, even when The Entity tried to change the landscape and confuse her. 

To try and pass even more time to give Zarina and Yui as much alone time as possible, Kate elected to grab a change of clothes from the survivor’s small supply area by the fire and go for a quick swim in the pond. She mostly wanted to wash off all of the blood that was now dried and crusted all over her tank top and shorts, only vaguely aware that most of the blood was actually Cheryl’s from their last trial, and not her own. 

Kate couldn’t help but think about Cheryl again as she hung up her clothes on a nearby tree to dry and changed into a red and white flannel top with light blue jeans. She wanted to know more about the girl’s past, chalking it up as merely the inner songwriter in her finding all of Cheryl’s cryptic words and vague hints to be intriguing. 

Kate only knew that whatever Cheryl had experienced in her past, it must have been horrific on a scale none of the others have ever witnessed- and Kate had no choice but to surrender to the way her heart broke at the thought. 

As she slowly made her way back to camp, she could hear celebratory cheers in the distance. Realizing it must have been the survivors from the current trial successfully escaping and returning home, Kate smiled and ran back to congratulate them.

“Ladies and gentlemen- tonight we eat like kings!”

Kate whooped in excitement and watched as Steve leapt on top of one of the logs around the campfire, pulling out an old wadded up t-shirt. He opened it up and spilled out several cans of soup onto the camp floor. 

His bounty was met with even more thunderous cheers, the younger survivors like David, Nancy, and Laurie joining the boy in his celebration while veteran survivors like Meg and Jake quickly began to scoop up each can of soup and take it over to the small workstation beside the campfire where meals were prepared. 

Kate couldn’t help but smile wide and appreciate the moment while it lasted. It was strange, how in a place supernaturally designed to serve as one’s personal hell, it was moments like these that made Kate feel less alone than she’d ever felt in her life. After a childhood of recording music and going on shows with people constantly rotating in and out of her life- with no one who Kate ever truly felt like they knew her- this cold and seemingly hopeless place actually made Kate feel like she had a real family. 

But The Entity seemed to sense Kate’s surge of familial love and satisfaction, and that simply wouldn’t do. The campfire immediately began to sizzle and spew out black smoke, the first trail heading straight for Kate.

Steve was the first to notice what was happening, giving Kate one of his signature grins.

“You better get back here quickly Denson, or there won’t be any soup left for you!”

“Save me a cup of chicken noodle!” Kate knew her request had come too late for the others to hear as her vision was already enveloped by fog.

Kate opened her eyes again and found herself in a building, yet as she turned around the songwriter had to cover her mouth to suppress the loud gasp that had escaped. 

There was blood practically everywhere, stained in various places all around the walls and floor of what Kate assumed to be based on the long hallways lined with lockers was a school of some kind. 

“Is this what elementary schools are like in America?”

Kate clamped her hand down even harder to suppress her startled squeak as she whirled around to face the woman behind her.

“Dammit Yui, you scared me half to death!”

The former racer smiled mischievously as she moved past Kate and went for the nearby staircase with the singer following close behind.

“There was a sign in the courtyard outside-a pretty freaking looking courtyard too. Welcome to Midwich Elementary School, located in Silent Hill, Maine.”

Kate nodded, understanding that this wasn’t the actual place- but generated by The Entity to resemble the actual place. 

There couldn’t possibly be a real Silent Hill in her former world if it was anything like this. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to this map before.”

“Neither have I,” Yui stated plainly. “But if it is true that every map is designed to represent the places that each killer originated from, then this map must be where that new killer is from- The Executioner.”

Kate stopped dead in her tracks while still halfway up the steps, frozen in shock.

_This_ was where Cheryl was from?

“Are you alright?” Yui turned to look down at Kate with concern as she spoke.

Kate quickly shook her head to clear it and hurried up the steps to get back to her friend’s side.

“Yeah, just thought I heard something.”

The songbird’s realization was still pounding in her head as she tried not to gag at the- were those lumps of raw flesh?

Kate was quick to follow Yui into the first classroom that they found, which thankfully held a generator. She knelt down next to Yui and quickly began to work, looking around at the bookshelves and desk chairs broken and thrown around everywhere. 

She tried to picture the room as if it were once a normal classroom, with children laughing and present. The image of a young Cheryl instantly came to mind- somehow Kate could picture her clearly. Sitting in the back corner of the classroom and probably staring out the window.

Suddenly the image in Kate’s mind had changed, and Cheryl was now in a purple dress with her dark hair much longer- but she still looked so sad…

“Kate? Have you been listening at all?”

Kate snapped out of her daze as soon as Yui started to wave a hand in front of her face, chuckling softly.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry Yui- what was it you were saying?”

“I was merely thanking you for being so accommodating of Zarina and I. Hearing about your own situation makes me admire your kindness and sacrifices even more.”

Kate was about to reassure Yui that it was really no trouble at all, but the latter half of her statement gave the woman a tight knot in her stomach and a lump in her throat. 

Sure, Kate had to give up a few things in her old life that others would deem important- but it was worth it in the end if she was still able to be successful and make people happy.

“You are the one who is always trying to preach to others about making the most of our time in this hell- and with all due respect Kate, are you really practicing your own gospel? Or are you merely pretending like Jane says you did before all of this happened to you?”

What did Jane say?

The two survivors finished the generator with a high pitched chime, but before Kate could whirl around to demand what exactly Yui was trying to imply- a low and wheezing laugh echoed and bounced off of the walls of the forsaken school. 

“Well shit- I knew I should have listened to Zee and waited until after the trial for your intervention. I am deeply sorry Kate, I had no idea we would be facing The-”

A glass bottle suddenly hurtled its way through the door and struck Yui right on the back of her head. As the girl cried out and toppled over Kate let out a scream and bolted as fast as she could in the other direction, stumbling as her body stiffened from the feeling of a chillingly familiar drug in her lungs. 

Kate did not typically find the killers she faced off against to be very terrifying. The pain that they brought to herself and her friends was always a fearful thought, but even the most twisted and disfigured killers generated by The Entity did little to intimidate Kate Denson.

All except one, who embodied Kate’s worst and only true fear.

She was terrified of clowns. 

As Yui tried her best to stand back up, the burly figure behind her drove the knife in his hand straight into her back, sending her back down on the ground with ease. 

The smoke from the chemicals began to clear, as Kate herself ran straight into a wall at the far end of the classroom. Disoriented and coughing, she leaned back on the wall for support, looking up and feeling her blood chill at the way The Clown looked straight at her and grinned.

Before the killer bent down to pick up Yui and sling the injured girl over his shoulder, The Clown enthusiastically held up his large key ring and showed it to Kate proudly- 

Pointing to the amputated right index finger impaled on the ring, one that was once attached to Kate’s own hand.

Kate felt her chest tighten and throb as if her heart had stopped beating, hot tears welled into her eyes as she heard her own breath hyperventilating. She couldn’t even feel her limbs anymore, but she still tried to narrow her focus on making them function properly as she scrambled to vault through a large hole in the wall next to her. 

The memory of her very first trial would replay in her mind over and over again. The painted blue smile that laughed in delight as Kate’s finger was sliced off of her hand paired with the soul crushing weight of thinking she would never be able to play her beloved guitar ever again as she felt each vertebrae in her neck and spine crack violently under the weight of his boot.

Kate stumbled through another classroom and kept trying to run until she found herself in a secluded library, feeling her legs finally give out as she crumpled onto the floor and began to sob. 

Her panic attack persisted for several long minutes, rendered completely unaware of whatever was happening in the trial around her. She remembered working with Jake previously outside of trials, the expert survivalist teaching her several breathing exercises to regain control of herself and her body- should the time ever come again that she’d have to face the only killer who could kill the untamable Kate Denson by his own hands. 

All of that practice and breathing techniques were useless now, as Kate rocked back and forth against a bookshelf in the very back corner of the library. Her left hand was clutching the fingers in her right hand so tightly they were starting to turn purple, which did little to help what she was trying to accomplish in reassuring herself that her finger was not gone- The Entity had given her a new one almost instantly after she lost the original. 

A book from the tallest shelf she was leaning on suddenly fell and struck Kate directly on the top of her head, the weight of the book falling into her lap slowly tugging her back into reality. It was a yearbook, opened to a page containing a photo that shocked Kate in a way that caused her to look harder.

It was a typical class photo containing a couple dozen small children, but what caught Kate’s attention was the girl in the purple dress and long dark hair that looked almost identical to Cheryl. It clearly wasn’t actually Cheryl, as she was missing the girl’s signature freckles and her ears were pierced, whereas Cheryl’s weren’t. Yet the resemblance was uncanny enough for Kate to flip to the next page and try and search for the girl’s name.

Instead Kate was met with a page containing nothing but bloody handwriting. 

_There is nothing I do better than revenge, and thus I seek your aid-_

_Keep Heather safe._

Underneath the ominous message was a strange circular symbol that Kate couldn’t recognize.

“Is that- is that first part a reference to my own song?”

Kate didn’t know exactly who she was talking to, or who Heather even was. Nothing like this had ever happened to her during a trial before.

Finally feeling enough strength back in her limbs to stand, Kate got back on her feet and wiped away the mascara that had run down her cheeks with her sleeve. She needed to get a grip and get back to saving her friends. 

She could see the auras of two different survivors pinned up on hooks, and somehow knew that three out of the five generators needed to power the exit gate had been repaired. 

Kate could hear footsteps quickly making their way down the hall towards the library, but she rightfully assumed it was the other remaining survivor based on the lack of a terror radius sound.

“Kate- thank goodness I found you!”

Yui’s hands gently squeezed Kate’s shoulders in a comforting but also grounding gesture. 

“Laurie got me off the hook earlier, her and Ace have just gotten hooked for the first time.”

Kate nodded at Yui’s updates, following her as she weaved through the various rooms of the school’s second floor. A part of her was now beginning to question what exactly Cheryl meant by claiming she was from this place, and what connection the young veteran of terror might have had to the girl in the yearbook photo who resembled her so closely. 

Either way, it was beginning to seem a lot clearer to Kate why Cheryl was the way that she was based on whatever traumatizing connection she must have to this place. It felt like chaos and hell incarnate, even more so than the other realms and maps that The Entity generated for them during trials. 

Both girls made their way down into the courtyard, and Kate now understood why Yui had previously described it as ‘freaky-looking’. There were chains thicker than her own body coming up from the ground and leading straight up into the sky- almost as if they were holding the realm itself together in one piece. Several cages seemed to float above them, suspended by chains attached to nothing. 

Yet what intrigued Kate the most was the large symbol in blood drawn onto the concrete in the very center of the courtyard- it was the same symbol that Kate had seen underneath the message from that yearbook. 

She thought about asking Cheryl later if she knew what that symbol meant, but then decided not to. Kate had a feeling the symbol was paired with a painful memory, and the last thing that the country singer wanted was to create another source for Cheryl’s pain. 

Kate wanted to be the thing that could help ease Cheryl’s pain, not make it worse. 

She could hear Yui helping Laurie down from her hook on the other side of the courtyard, so Kate made quick work of getting Ace down from his own hook. 

“Listen Ace, I know Cheryl said she was from this place, but do you really think-”

“I’m just gonna stop you right there-” Ace held up his hand to silence Kate, who was beginning to heal up the older gambler’s injuries. 

“There are certain situations that will come up in your life one day that you’re just gonna have to roll with. Like a pair of dice- you don’t question how they fell and traveled along across the table- the only thing you focus on is what numbers they end up showing you in that present moment, and you have no choice but to accept that outcome no matter what.”

Kate was absolutely dumbstruck by Ace’s surprisingly wise words, but only for a moment as the pounding sound of the terror radius began to grow closer. The songbird’s panic quickly spiked once again and froze her in place. 

She tried her absolute best to shake the panic away and run after the retreating Ace, or even take the killer in a different direction and keep him distracted for a while like she could normally do so well. But she only managed to take a few steps before a glass bottle slammed into her back and shattered, sending Kate tumbling into the nearby bushes as her vision blurred and her lungs burned. 

The wound in her left shoulder from her last trial with The Executioner was suddenly ripped open by a slash from The Clown’s butterfly knife, and Kate cried out in pain. She tried her best to roll away and out of the bushes, stumble back to her feet but the chemicals The Clown used for his bottles made her unbelievably dizzy. 

A searing pain ignited in Kate’s left thigh as the killer’s knife plunged into her and she fell over. 

As soon as The Clown placed his grubby and bandaged hands on Kate, her mind was sent straight back to that memory from her first death. 

The rest of the trial felt like an out of body experience after that. 

Kate could vaguely recall getting on the hook, hearing other generator chimes ring out- Yui bringing her down from the hook and attempting to carry her- but her memory seemed to fade out once The Clown came back into view. 

She must have pulled herself down from the second time she was on the hook, clutching a long and gaping wound in her side that was so deep she wondered with a horrifying thought if her hands were the only things keeping her insides _inside_ of her body. 

Yui was calling out to her. The exit gate had been opened. Something happened to her throat. It was bleeding and bleeding and Kate couldn’t talk anymore. 

The hatch. Her last chance. She could escape. There was still hope. Kate could still crawl. 

Fog spilled out from the hatch… on the floor just in front of her… it whispered. 

The hatched closed. The Clown laughed. 

She lost hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry for ending the chapter on such a grim note like that! I thought I'd just remind you now that Kate is gonna be okay, and I promise that wherever this story ends up going it will have a happy ending in store for Cheryl and Kate. 
> 
> The one time Cheryl decides to get some sleep... her girl gets murdered on the equivalent of her front porch. Yikes. I guess we'll have to wait and see how Cheryl decides to handle this next chapter. As always, thank you so much for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts!


	5. Tied Together with a Smile

Someone was frantically shaking Cheryl awake. 

Yet it must have just been some vivid part of her nightmare, as she was completely alone in her tent by the time she bolted upright in her bed. 

She was certainly feeling a lot better after all of that rest, even if it never felt very restful. The various cuts on her legs were nearly completely healed, and the long gash down her back had been reduced to a dull ache. 

Even though Cheryl hadn’t been living amongst the other survivors for very long, she could immediately tell that something was wrong when she exited her tent and hesitantly approached the campfire in search of food. The usual chatter of the various survivors had grown quiet.

Cheryl felt extremely awkward once she made her way over to a log and sat down, still feeling quite wary about sitting so close to the flames. She wondered where Kate was, curiously realizing that she would have felt more comfortable if the former singer was sitting here with her. 

A boy whom Cheryl recognized as Steve was sitting on the ground with his legs out in front of him, leaning back on his elbows next to the food station. He looked up at Cheryl when he noticed her sit down.

“Oh hey Cheryl- you want some soup? We had a bunch earlier, but most of us aren’t feeling very hungry anymore.”

Cheryl honestly didn’t want to, but she knew now it would be rude of her not to ask what was wrong. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, she was just usually uncomfortable instigating conversation with those she didn’t know very well yet.

“Is everybody okay…?”

She glanced between Jane and Ace, who were the two older figures currently sitting at the campfire that she somewhat trusted the most. Ace’s face was surprisingly stoic, but Cheryl could tell that behind his glasses there was a quiet fury inside of him. Jane also appeared quite troubled, with her hands clasped together tightly and her head bent low, before she turned her face towards Cheryl at her question.

“Something happened to Kate during her last trial-” Jane looked as if she wasn’t sure where to begin. 

Cheryl felt her stomach drop, and she tried to quiet the deep breath she felt herself take. She had been told countless times that death or injuries here weren’t permanent. What could have possibly happened to her that could make the entire camp grow so somber?

“The first time Kate Denson was ever on my show, she had just barely turned sixteen. She was promoting her first studio album, and I decided to play a fun little game of _Truth or Dare_ with her-”

Cheryl nodded along, confused as to where this story was going. 

“Long story short, she ended up admitting during the game that the only thing on this earth that she was afraid of was clowns. I even made fun of her a couple of years later for sharing her biggest fear and then titling her very next album _Fearless..._ ”

While Cheryl did find that amusing- and found herself thinking about the disturbing image of Kate wandering through Cheryl’s hometown with a bunch of colorful clowns everywhere- she was starting to lose her patience.

“Jane, can you just tell me what happened? Is Kate alright?”

“No.” 

Ace answered the question for her.

“The Clown is a killer with a particular obsession for Miss Denson- she got Memento Mori-ed by him during her very first trial. In our last trial she got murdered by that son of a bitch again, in a little place called Midwich Elementary.”

Cheryl didn’t care if the shock on her face was visible to everyone at the campfire with her. She felt her blood freeze into ice. Her shock twisted into anger, then guilt, before finally cooling down into sorrow for Kate as she knew all too well what facing your worst fears at _that place_ felt like.

“Cheryl, are you okay kid? Does the name of that place ring any bells for you?”

Jane’s question seemed to help break Cheryl out of her thoughts, realizing with dread that she would now have to come up with some sort of explanation. 

“That school is from Silent Hill- the town I was born in. To put it as nicely as I can, that place is the closest you can get to the concept of hell. A lot of… bad things have gone down there.”

The newest survivor didn’t want to be too specific with her wording, especially since most of the _bad things_ that happened in Silent Hill happened either directly too or were the fault of herself. 

“Could it possibly be any worse than The Entity’s Realm? Or Freddy’s Nightmare Realm?”

Cheryl hadn’t seen Quentin sitting further back at the campfire with them. She had been trying her best to avoid the boy ever since he had been so accusatory of her when she first arrived, but Cheryl had no choice but to give her most honest answer now that she had just shared something so vulnerable about herself with him. 

“I’ve never been to the Nightmare Realm place that you’re talking about, but if it’s anything like The Entity’s Realm, I can easily say that Silent Hill is a thousand times worse.”

That seemed to cause a wave of shock throughout everybody at the campfire. The last thing that Cheryl wanted was to have everybody see her as some freak after an admission like that- but if The Entity now had access to unleash the horrors of Silent Hill upon her allies, she would need to let them know to prepare for the worst.

Especially after seeing what it did to Kate. 

Somehow Cheryl knew that Kate could easily make the connection between her and Silent Hill. She probably wanted nothing to do with her now, though Cheryl honestly couldn’t blame her after hearing what happened. 

So why did the thought of Kate hating her hurt so much?

“While Kate did seem concerned about the environment of the new realm, do not be mistaken Cheryl. Her current condition comes solely from the trauma of her experience with The Clown.”

Cheryl remembered the girl with pink goggles that now joined them at the fire to be Yui. As the blonde girl sat down next to Cheryl at the fire, several heads shot up towards her expectantly. 

“How is she?” Jane was the first to speak up and ask what everybody else was thinking. 

Yui grimaced. “She is not well. There are no physical injuries, and while it seems like she is still able to speak she is not speaking very much to Zee and I at all.”

Many faces around the campfire fell, including Jane’s. “Do you think I should go try and talk to her? Or maybe-”

Jane’s eyes along with a handful of others wandered to Cheryl, who merely stared back in confusion. If Yui said Kate’s trauma wasn’t from being at Silent Hill, Cheryl had no clue why people assumed there was anything she could do specifically that would help Kate. 

But Cheryl did really want to help Kate, especially after all of the kindness she had shown her. She would do anything to try and help ease Kate’s pain. 

Cheryl cleared her throat nervously before she spoke up. “Steve, do we happen to have any chicken noodle soup left?”

The boy looked up at Cheryl in wonder as he grinned. “You bet I do! That one is Kate’s favorite- how did you know that?”

Cheryl shrugged. “Just a lucky guess- I mean who _doesn’t_ love chicken noodle soup?”

A few of the others at the campfire laughed, and Cheryl felt herself relax around everybody’s stare just a little bit. There were still many survivors here that she still hadn’t met yet, but the more she spent time with everybody the more she was starting to learn that they all seemed to share this unspoken bond- like a very large and strange family. 

Cheryl wasn’t sure if she was ready to let in a new family just yet, after trying and failing for three years to recover from the loss of her own. But if Cheryl’s assumptions were correct and she was going to remain trapped in this purgatory forever-

These weren’t the worst people to spend it with.

As Steve handed Cheryl a steaming metal cup full of the soup and a small metal spoon, she turned back to Yui before standing up.

“Is she in her tent right now?”

Yui nodded and pointed to the tent that was right next to Cheryl’s own. 

“I must warn you, she was refusing to eat earlier when she first got back, so don’t be offended if she refuses again.”

Cheryl felt herself give off the faintest hint of a mischievous smile.

“I’ll make sure she eats something, even if I have to give her a taste of her own medicine.”

Yui smiled and gave an encouraging nod of her head, which did little to calm Cheryl’s sudden nerves as she approached Kate’s tent with her soup. She wasn’t quite sure how to announce herself when she got to the tents entrance.

“Uhm- knock knock?”

There was a pause as Cheryl could hear soft murmurs come from inside the tent. She took a couple of steps back as the tent’s flap slowly opened and Zarina emerged, looking ashen until she saw who it was. 

“Oh hey Cheryl- look at you coming to check up on Kate and bring her some soup.”

Zarina turned her head and spoke into the tent’s open entrance, clearly trying to inform the girl inside as to what was going on. Yet there was something else laced in her tone that Cheryl didn’t really understand- it was if Zarina was trying to emphasize something important to Kate. 

But Zarina still ushered her inside and closed the tent flap behind them- much to Cheryl’s surprise, leaving Kate and Cheryl alone. 

The inside of the tents always had very little light, with nothing but whatever moonlight shone through the worn fabric above their heads as a source. 

Yet even still, the sight of Kate Denson was the first thing in many years that threatened to break Cheryl’s heart. 

All of her usual dark eye makeup was removed, and yet she still looked incredibly pale. Her deep blue eyes usually held a certain warmth to them that Cheryl could practically _feel_ every time they met her own, but now they seemed dull and lifeless. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was now wearing a faded red sweater and dark jeans, with her knees tucked up into her chest. 

It looked as if Kate was trying to hide inside of her clothes like a turtle in its shell, and the sight of it made Cheryl suppress a deep sigh as she knelt down and set her cup of soup down on the hay bale bed in front of Kate.

Cheryl wasn’t sure why she was so nervous. She was well trained in handling these exact situations from her time working in the crisis center for troubled youth- not to mention her first hand experience in her own trauma from even before that. 

The last thing she wanted to do was say something that might trigger Kate. She knew not to bring up anything that would remind her of what happened. 

“I brought you some soup-”

Cheryl paused when it looked like Kate was going to speak, but it still took her a few moments before she faintly whispered her reply out.

“I’m not hungry.”

The smaller blonde didn’t like how hoarse Kate’s voice had sounded- usually her voice was undeniably one of her best qualities. Even someone like Cheryl who wasn’t a huge fan of her music before now had to agree. 

“But Steve told me chicken noodle was your favorite, and who doesn’t love a nice and fresh cup, straight from the campfire?”

The soup itself probably wasn’t as fresh as Cheryl claimed, as she wasn’t sure how long it had been in its can before it had been scavenged. But she was merely trying her best to get Kate to eat.

Clearly her best wasn’t good enough however, as Kate simply tucked her head down and seemed to turn her entire body away from her and the soup. Cheryl tried her best not to take the rejection too harshly. 

“Thank you for giving me that blanket and pillow by the way- I assume that was you. Would you like them back now?”

Cheryl could just barely make out Kate shaking her head. 

“Would you like me to go get you a new one then?”

Kate shook her head again.

“Look Kate, I know it’s not my place but I think you’d be a lot more comfortable with a blanket on you right now- and I am determined to show you the same southern hospitality you showed me when I first got here.”

Kate turned to look at Cheryl for a moment, a spark of something returning to her eyes for just an instant as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Southern hospitality?”

“Yeah you know, you being so kind to me and everything.”

“Cheryl… I’m from Pennsylvania.” 

Cheryl was genuinely taken aback for a heartbeat. 

“Wait what? But aren’t you a country singer?”

And there it was. The very faintest outline of a smile traced across Kate’s lips.

“Not every country singer is from the south you goober- but we do get to pretend.”

Cheryl found herself smiling now, as she tried her best not to laugh.

“So wait, did you have to fake a country accent and everything?”

“You bet your Chevy pickup truck I did, _darlin’._ ”

Kate’s exaggerated country accent brought some color back into her voice, and even Cheryl couldn’t help but let out a- was she _giggling?_

She was honestly thankful at herself for letting out an involuntary giggle, as it was a great way to ignore the warmth that spread across her chest from the way Kate called her _darlin’_.

Kate seemed to let out a soft laugh too, yet it seemed to die quickly as soon as it left her- causing her to turn away from Cheryl once again. 

“I hate feeling like this- I feel so useless.”

Her voice was so quiet that Cheryl could barely hear her, but she still nodded in understanding.

“Would you like me to be honest with you Kate?”

When the other girl slowly turned to look at her and nodded, Cheryl made a point to push her bangs out of her face with her hand so that Kate could get a clear view of her eyes.

“Your focus on always helping others isn’t where your use needs to be put right now. From what little time I’ve been here, I can see that you’re always trying to look out for everybody else. And that’s great, that’s what makes you such a kind person- but you also need to extend that kindness to yourself- and focus on taking care of yourself for awhile.”

The hard look on Kate’s face softened, before she gave Cheryl a slightly teasing grin.

“Look who’s talking- hypocritical much?”

It took Cheryl a moment to realize Kate’s teasing was about her before she sighed.

“I admit- this is something that I need to work on as well- but what you don’t know is that I have been trying to work on these things for three years now. It’s a gradual process marked by little points of growth and occasional relapses. Getting kidnapped by a demonic Entity and thrown into a purgatory realm doesn’t exactly help much for my recovery process.”

Cheryl wasn’t sure what to make of Kate’s reaction as she spoke, but the other woman seemed to be listening intently and watching her in interest. 

“Maybe this is something that we can work on together then- healing.”

Cheryl smiled back at Kate’s request.

“I’d like that.”

There was a moment of pleasant silence between the two survivors, before Cheryl reluctantly decided to be the one to break it.

“You should still have some soup before it gets cold. Even if you don’t feel hungry, I think you’ll feel better if you at least try.”

Kate glanced down at the soup anxiously, before slowly untangling her hands that were buried in the sleeves of her sweater and moved her knees down to sit cross-legged. Her right hand reached out to grasp the handle of the spoon, Cheryl noticing that the celebrity’s right index finger had been wrapped in very loose bandages.

Kate glanced down to stare at her hand before it began to tremble violently. She quickly dropped her hand into her lap and submerged her fingers back into her sleeve.

“God, I’m so pathetic…” Kate was barely able to choke the words out before she let out a loud sniffle, her eyes welling up with tears. 

“Hey- Kate easy there now, look at me.”

Cheryl hopped up on the opposite end of the hay bale and sat on her knees, facing Kate. She tried her best to keep her voice gentle and soft, remembering her training from the crisis center. She remembered her tone to be one of her hardest obstacles during training, as Cheryl’s voice always came with a certain edge to it.

“Is your finger injured at all?”

Kate wiped her eyes with her sleeve and shook her head.

“Then why is it all wrapped up?”

The look on Kate’s face was so broken, Cheryl had to try her very best not to let her own pain that she felt for the other girl show on her face.

“It _hurts_.”

Kate’s voice practically shattered as she spoke, causing Cheryl’s heart to finally break for her.

The two survivors didn’t say anything for a few minutes after that, Cheryl merely sitting and keeping Kate company while she cried softly. 

She waited until Kate had finished letting out all her cries before she spoke again. 

“You’re not pathetic Kate- you’re just somebody who could benefit from some help right now. That’s a part of the recovery process- accepting help from others.”

Cheryl knew this next part was a huge risk, but she had a small feeling in the back of her mind that it might work.

She held out her own hand towards Kate. “If it’s okay with you, may I take a look at it?”

There was a flash of fear and wariness in Kate’s eyes for a moment, which Cheryl was expecting. But in the very next, the other woman very slowly pulled her fingers out of her sleeve and held them out to Cheryl.

The young veteran of terror very gently took Kate’s fingers into her own hand, holding it with one while the fingers of her other began to apply a slow pressure to each finger on Kate’s right hand. 

“He always cuts it off- my finger. He cuts it off and I can’t play guitar anymore-”

Kate’s broken whisper still trembled despite its softness, and Cheryl finally understood why the experience was so traumatizing for her. 

Cheryl even wondered about Kate’s initial fear of clowns, their painted faces hiding their true selves. The dramaticized fakeness of their theatricality all in exchange for a few cheap and meaningless laughs. 

That very thing taking away what Kate loved most about her career- maybe even the only thing that made all of the burdens and sacrifices of a career in fame worth it.

That was just a shot in the dark however. Cheryl didn’t think she knew Kate well enough to know if any of these assumptions were correct. 

“Your finger is still here though- see?”

Cheryl carefully unwrapped the bandages around Kate’s finger, showing it to her.

“I can’t feel it- it hurts but I can’t feel it at the same time-”

Cheryl nodded at Kate’s admission, slowly and very lightly tracing the tips of her fingers along Kate’s right index finger. 

“Did you feel that?”

Kate nodded, her eyes wide in awe and astonishment. 

“Can you feel this?”

With very slow and even pressure, Cheryl squeezed her fingers down around Kate’s finger.

That was how she discovered Kate was a very physical person by nature, as the relief on her face brought Cheryl a reassuring smile of her own.

And apparently compelled Kate to throw herself across the space between them and wrap her arms tightly around Cheryl, burying her face into the top of the much shorter girl’s shoulder. 

“Thank you. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Cheryl wasn’t really much of a hug person, but she allowed herself to endure it for at least a few more seconds. 

For Kate. 

“Can you please eat your soup now before one of us finds a way to knock it over?”

Kate finally released the other girl from her hug and gave in with a nod, her hands still shaking slightly as she began to eat. Cheryl would gently help guide Kate’s hands each time she gathered some soup on her spoon, purposefully making sure her hands wouldn’t linger with Kate’s for the sake of keeping Cheryl’s face from flushing in embarrassment. 

Yet she also didn’t want Kate to feel like she was being smothered either. The last thing she wanted to do was make her uncomfortable. 

When she was finished Cheryl promptly stood up with the empty cup and spoon, making her way to the tent’s flap to clean and put the used dishes away before Kate stopped her.

“Actually Cheryl- could you stay here awhile? At least until Zarina or Yui come back?”

Cheryl found herself unable to meet the performer’s eyes when she had that soft and pleading pout on her face, rationalizing it to Kate merely not wanting to be alone right now.

“Oh- sure, of course.”

Cheryl moved back and sat on the fourth hay bale bed in the room, one that didn’t seem to be claimed by anybody. It was in the same place as Cheryl’s bed back in her own empty tent.

While it was clear that Kate was still nowhere near as conversational as she usually was, the two survivors found they actually had plenty of similar interests to talk about. Cheryl assumed that Kate was around the same age as her, maybe just a couple of years older. She hadn’t expected a country singer who had blown into stardom in her tweens to have such a passion for literature, but the two found themselves discussing many of their favorite books together.

“You seem like the kind of person who tells everybody they’re a Slytherin, but you’re actually a Ravenclaw!”

Cheryl felt herself sputtering as she was being called out. “Well you seem like the type who tells everybody they’re a Gryffindor but you’re actually a Hufflepuff!”

“I _am_ a Gryffindor, thank you very much!”

“You just keep telling yourself that Kate- to be honest I always found the overall quality of writing in those books to be a little lackluster, everything got jumbled up at the end in the big battles with too many characters and vague philosophical talking points-”

Cheryl was expecting Kate to disagree, but her eyes seemed to light up just slightly at the smaller blonde’s admission.

“I know right? Like I wish the focus had stayed on the characterization and importance of Harry’s love for his found family-”

The conversation delved deeper into the two girl’s individual writing techniques and preferences after that. Cheryl learned that Kate was actually a pretty brilliant writer herself, as she explained the various ways she establishes her characters and weaves intense emotions into her narratives all without even giving away their names in the song. 

Cheryl was able to share the parts of her life that she was far more open about, how she got into NYU for an english degree in hopes of becoming a writer. She purposefully left out the part of her father getting murdered by a freakish monster that was similar to The Executioner, but Kate didn’t implore any further- only murmured a soft apology when Cheryl vaguely mentioned paying for school using her late father’s life insurance and a couple of good scholarships. 

Of course, that was before she started volunteering at the crisis center next to campus and got kidnapped into a hellscape by a demonic Entity. 

Cheryl could hear the weariness seep into Kate’s voice as their conversation kept going, and the young veteran terror couldn’t help but find it endearing when Kate went on about her love for romance narratives in such a soft and dreamy voice. 

She found it curious how often Kate would bring up her passion for love stories despite never once mentioning a significant other of her own. Cheryl could remember hearing about _’Kate Denson, the hopeless teenage romantic-’_ despite not really caring much for celebrity gossip herself. 

The thought of Kate being in love with somebody back home from her former life made Cheryl frown with a strange feeling twisting in her stomach, but she wasn’t entirely sure why. That was when she realized the hopeful songbird had grown quiet, and Cheryl peered over to see Kate sleeping peacefully.

Looking around the tent, she found several small piles of clothes all folded up neatly on the ground near the foot of Kate’s bed. Cheryl picked a t-shirt near the bottom of the stack and carefully bunched it up into a makeshift pillow, before gently lifting up Kate’s head with one hand and moving the pillow underneath her with the other.

Cheryl never really liked the way long hair looked on herself. It had been at its longest just before The Entity had taken her, down to her shoulders with her natural darker hair color. Like the rest of her clothes, her shorter blonde look must have come back here as The Entity’s cruel way of reminding Cheryl of the worst time in her life- haunting her in hopes of breaking her spirit. 

She couldn’t really care less what her hair looked like, she always thought blondes seem to have more fun anyways. 

Kate’s hair was just on the cusp of a dirty blonde and a golden brown, and Cheryl merely assumed it was an objective fact that the country singer’s hair was beautiful- even when it was tied back and restricted behind her head. 

Cheryl was mindful not to stare for too long however, as she made her way back over to the vacant bed in the corner and sat down. She wanted to leave and go get the blanket Kate had given her for her own bed, but she also didn’t want to break her prior agreement to stay so Kate wouldn’t be alone.

Hoping Zarina wouldn’t mind, Cheryl elected to take the blanket from what she assumed was her bed and carefully draped it over the sleeping songwriter. Kate didn’t even seem like she was cold, but Cheryl wanted to make sure that she was comfortable.

Her timing could have been better however, as the tent’s flap opened with Zarina and Yui entering hand in hand just as Cheryl was tucking the blanket up to Kate’s chin. 

The smaller survivor immediately took multiple steps back and blushed as if she was just caught committing a crime, hoping her best that the couple wouldn’t get the wrong assumption from what they just witnessed. 

Instead, they both seemed rather relieved.

“Thank you for getting her to eat and rest Cheryl.” Yui commented as she removed her pink goggles and set them down by her own belongings. “I feared that Kate would never be the same after what that Clown did to her-”

Cheryl was grateful for her bangs falling in her face to hide her wince. 

“She had spent most of the trial hiding in the library, but once The Clown found her again he wouldn’t stop tunneling her- that’s when a killer focuses on repeatedly hooking the same survivor over and over again.”

Cheryl nodded, glancing down at Kate as Yui kept speaking.

“We managed to get the gate open before we tried to go back for her- she even managed to pull herself off of the hook- which is nearly impossible without killing yourself. But he was absolutely merciless to her- he practically _tore_ her open and slashed her throat so she couldn’t scream for help- and we couldn’t find her in time…”

Cheryl suddenly felt sick, managing to swallow down a wave of nausea she hadn’t felt since she was first taken to The Entity’s Realm. 

“You did everything you could for her hun, don’t forget that. Now we just have to try and be there for her.”

Zarina wrapped an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders as she spoke, with Cheryl nodding along in agreement before she spoke up.

“I hope you don’t mind Zarina, I gave Kate your blanket. I wasn’t sure when you two would be coming back so-”

“Oh don’t worry about it,” The filmmaker reassured Cheryl with a wave of her hand. “Yui and I were about to push our beds next to each other, so we only need one blanket for the two of us from now on anyways- unless this one doesn’t stop moving around so much in her sleep!”

Zarina nudged Yui playfully, who rolled her eyes and leaned a little more into the other’s embrace.

Cheryl couldn’t help but smile softly at how comfortable they seemed with each other. 

While Zarina and Yui began to push their hay bales together and rearrange themselves in their tent, Cheryl took it as her cue to retrieve the empty soup dishes from before and make her exit.

“Oh wait a second Cheryl- I know you declined Kate’s first offer back when you first arrived, but are you sure that you don’t wanna crash here with us? We have an extra bed, and I’d say Yui and I can both agree that it’s easier to get used to everything around here among friends than by yourself.”

Yui nodded along with Zarina’s offer. “Zee was a bit of a loner herself when she first arrived not long before you- but Kate and I wore her down rather quickly-”

Zarina laughed as she shot another playful look at her girlfriend. “And look how well that turned out for both of us.”

Cheryl did seriously consider their offer for a moment. Zarina and Yui both seemed like decent and trustworthy people, especially if Kate considered them to be good friends- not to mention Cheryl was the closest thing to comfortable with Kate than she was with any of the other survivors here. 

But she always remembered to consider her boundaries, and knew that she was going to have to take things at a slower pace if she was going to stay sane with everything that she’d been through up until now. 

“I’d like to move in here if you’ll have me- but maybe not for awhile, if that’s okay with you two.”

Both girls seemed to be alright with Cheryl’s deal, nodding their heads and not even questioning why the new survivor asked for a delay to begin with. 

As Cheryl finally exited the tent and closed it behind her, she could have sworn she heard Kate let out a soft whimper in her sleep. 

She wished there was more she could do for Kate, but instead resigned to a silent vow with herself that from now on she would do everything in her power in this realm to keep Kate safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See I promised I'd make it better... kind of-
> 
> Sorry if this chapter wasn't very eventful but I figured they needed some downtime to recover from everything- also sorry to any Harry Potter fans out there for the slander I just wanted them to bond over a nerdy book series and Harry Potter seemed like a safe choice.
> 
> I forgot to mention this earlier- I do actually play Dead By Daylight so feel free to add me if you like playing with baby Cheryl mains: Loaf Champion#f07f (I recently switched to PC after playing console for years so I've mostly been grinding to get my survivors back up when I'm not writing for this story-).
> 
> But I digress, as always thank you so much for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts if you have any!


	6. Delicate

Kate… was still recovering. 

Things were getting easier for her with each passing ‘day’. Not every survivor bothered to measure the passage of time, but many of them liked to count every four trials as the equivalent of a day. 

She hadn’t been pulled into any trials for the first few ‘days’ after what happened. She didn’t leave her tent much, but Kate had certainly gotten a lot of visitors. 

Claudette and Jake would often bring her tea, which had definitely helped a lot with calming her incessant nerves. Dwight would come and check up on her frequently. He kept a catalog of all the killers and their unique abilities and techniques, as well as a list of every realm The Entity would send them too along with tips and strategies for surviving each one. They each agreed that when Kate was ready, she would tell Dwight about how exactly The Clown tunneled her for him to keep in his records.

He mentioned to her once that Cheryl was much more valuable than she initially let on, which didn’t surprise Kate in the slightest. Apparently the newest survivor knew everything there was to know about facing against The Executioner, and knew her way around Midwich Elementary School like the back of her hand despite never actually having a trial there before. 

Cheryl was admittedly one of her favorite visitors, and Kate wished that she visited more often. 

She knew Cheryl was just trying to be polite. Kate had asked her to stop by each time she came back from a trial and tell Kate how it went, and she always showed up with food rations of some kind to make Kate eat something while she told her about her trial. 

Cheryl had yet to fail a trial and get sacrificed yet, and there seemed to be a lingering tension around the topic every time she spoke about it. Getting sacrificed was never a fun experience for any of them, but Kate was beginning to develop the suspicion that there was something around the topic that Cheryl wasn’t telling her. 

Sometimes Kate would ask, but she never pressed or fought with the other girl when Cheryl would brush it off or passively decline her questions. 

Jane probably came to check up on Kate the most, but admittedly the songwriter’s relationship with the former talk show host was strained. She was beginning to grow wary of her after Yui revealed back at Silent Hill that Jane had been saying things about Kate’s past career to the other survivors. 

Jane Romero was the one celebrity who Kate had trusted not to gossip around about her. She didn’t think Jane was the kind of person who played those games. 

Kate knew she was probably just being paranoid. Jane usually always had her best interests at heart, so it was entirely possible that Kate herself was the one blowing things out of proportion. But anything that reminded the country singer of all that celebrity competition, drama, and gossip from her youth… just made her sick. 

It was one of the many nudges that finally pushed her over the edge once she had turned twenty-one, which caused her to hit the brakes on her whole career and run off to only perform small gigs with just her guitar and her truck around her home state. 

And maybe a good bourbon at the end of the day. To take the edge off of everything. 

So much time had passed since then, and now Kate was finally feeling comfortable enough to leave her tent- changing back into her old blue shorts and a white tank top before she crept her way over to the campfire.

There weren’t that many survivors sitting at the fire, and she was grateful that nobody made a big deal about her finally coming out to join them- despite still noticing many excited and relieved eyes on her. 

Jake wordlessly handed her a small wooden cup filled with tea, which Kate greatly appreciated and thanked him for. David was telling a rather exciting story of a bar fight he had gotten into in the past, with several of the younger survivors like Laurie and Min listening intently with excitement. 

“Where’s Cheryl?” Kate asked as she sat down next to Zarina and Yui at the fire. 

“She’s in a trial with Ace, Quentin, and Meg right now. They should be back soon though.”

Kate nodded and hummed thoughtfully. Based on Cheryl’s updates, her and Ace made a pretty good team. She wondered if Ace might be reminding Cheryl of her late father at all, but Kate didn’t know anything about Cheryl’s father or the circumstances around his death to know for sure. 

She knew Cheryl didn’t like talking about it, as the younger survivor never brought up her late father again after that first ‘day’ she had come to help Kate. 

Her finger never hurt once after that. Every time it threatened to, Kate would simply squeeze her finger and remember Cheryl’s featherlight touch. It always managed to make her feel better. 

“And I’d say that was another flawless victory for the No Sleep Gang!”

Kate jumped at the sound of Quentin’s uncharacteristically excited voice, hoping she didn’t appear as startled as she actually was. 

She was even more surprised to see Cheryl right at his side as they emerged from the bushes and strode into camp, the smallest smile of triumph playing across her face. It would have normally warmed Kate’s heart to see Cheryl looking so comfortable and almost confident, but it was clouded by her confusion. 

When had Cheryl and Quentin become so close? Especially after his apprehension to her when she first arrived? 

“How strong is our streak going again Quen?”

Quentin didn’t even blink at Cheryl’s nickname for him, much to Kate’s shock. 

“I believe we’re now at number eight, closing in on double digits and on our way to the high score!”

The two exchanged a subtle fist bump as Feng Min let out a scoff, clearly trying her best not to appear worried about the two survivors passing her record for the longest surviving trial streak. Kate didn’t know the exact number, but it was somewhere over twenty. 

On one hand, Kate was really pleased to see Cheryl starting to get along so well with the others, even developing something of a friendship with Quentin. Yet on another, there was the faintest feeling of something that made Kate uncomfortable with the thought of her not being the survivor Cheryl was most comfortable with anymore.

Was it jealousy? What reason did Kate have to be jealous?

“Oh, hey Kate.”

Once the excitement of their victory started to die down and the attention of the campfire moved over to Quentin as he recounted the trial, Kate felt Cheryl immediately shuffle over to her and sit down on her other side. 

Kate’s mouth was already open to ask her about the trial and Quentin, but the words died in her mouth when she noticed the rather nasty looking gash across the smaller blonde’s cheek. Her mouth instantly closed as she moved around to grab some bandages from the spare medkit kept next to the fire. 

“Oh, it looks a lot worse than it actually is, you don’t have to-“

Kate shushed Cheryl’s protests quickly. “Let me help you this time.”

Her whisper was only soft enough for Cheryl to hear, the two girls pausing for several moments as they had an entire conversation with just their eyes and their faces so close together. Cheryl broke contact first and nodded, which was presumably her way of allowing Kate to continue bandaging up the cut on her cheek. 

The younger woman’s face was surprisingly warm as Kate blotted away the fresh blood with a cloth, but she wrote it off as just the warmth from the fire as she stuck the adhesive bandage on the wound. 

Once Kate was done pressing the bandage down and pulled away, she smiled at the way Cheryl’s eyes were closed and her head leaned ever so slightly into Kate’s touch. 

“Are you tired at all Cheryl?”

The other girl’s eyes quickly fluttered open and promptly turned away from Kate, clearing her throat softly as her bangs fell back in her eyes. 

“Maybe a little, but sleep and I don’t exactly have the best relationship-”

“That’s why we’re called the No Sleep Gang!”

Quentin must have heard her reply as he called back over with his own exclamation. Cheryl gave the boy something that Kate could only guess was a smirk and a thumbs up.

The uncomfortable feeling within Kate had finally passed as she felt nothing but happiness for their little friendship. 

“I highly approve of this, but might I suggest a change of branding to something _healthier_ please-“

Kate’s hand gestures between Cheryl and Quentin as she spoke caused them both and Zarina and Yui to laugh. 

The laughter quickly died as the campfire’s smoke turned black, and Kate held her breath to fight back the wave of anxiety as a trail of smoke went straight for her. 

She was surprised that Cheryl was the first to speak, a look on her face that Kate could always recall from the night they first laid eyes on each other. 

“Kate-“

“Just get some sleep-“

That was all Kate had to say to the other girl before the fog enveloped her completely. 

She thought a lot about what Cheryl had said to her that night she first helped Kate through her trauma. That recovery was all about gradual growth and minor relapses. 

She had expected the relapse of getting sacrificed to be worse. 

The Pig was one of the easier killers for her. For some reason she was always less aggressive when she went after Kate. There were these big steel contraptions that she would put on survivor’s heads, and they needed to find a way to get them off before a timer ended and their heads were torn open violently. 

But she never liked to put the Reverse Bear Trap on Kate for some reason, she could never quite figure out why. 

Three generators had already been repaired in the Gideon Meat Plant by the time The Pig had gotten close enough to strike at Kate, getting a nice knick on her shoulder before the hopeful songbird managed to tip over a wooden pallet on top of them both. 

Kate had managed to crawl out first however, getting some good distance between her and The Pig before turning back to taunt her. 

“Come on now porkchop, I know you’ve got more fight left in you than _that!_ ”

The wooden pallet suddenly shattered as The Pig let out something of a rawr, charging straight for her. 

Evading the killer’s clutches was what Kate did best during these trials, the thrill of knowing she could keep a killer’s attention long enough for her teammates to power the exit gate and stay safe was enough to mask the sharp pain of panic that threatened to take over Kate’s chest.

She knew her heart was pounding quicker than it should, her breathing was harder than she needed it to be.

She had to believe that she could do this. 

“You always were a better dancer than the critics gave you credit for-“

It took a few seconds to process it was Jane that had spoken to her as she bolted past. If it weren’t for the murderous killer on her tail, she would have thought to shoot back a remark of her own. 

She knew Jane was trying to compliment her, but for once could she just _stop bringing up her past?_

Kate’s mind was still hung up on one particular portion of Jane’s comment however. Metaphorically, this was the closest to dancing Kate had done in a long time. 

She thought about what actual dancing used to feel like. She imagined herself in a flowery dress, spinning around the campfire as if she had the luxury of feeling so carefree. She imagined the trees around them as a real forest, with lush vegetation that blew in the wind as if they too were enjoying a music that Kate didn’t have to provide. 

Kate vaulted through a window and skidded around the corner of the bottom floor, allowing herself to stay in her fantasy now that she was sure she had lost the killer. 

Dreaming of things she could never have was Kate Denson’s best and worst habit all at the same time.

Her fate was sealed when she imagined herself reaching out to a girl sitting at the campfire, offering her hand with four damning words slipping out of her heart and through her lips. 

“Dance with me, Cheryl.”

The pounding heart beat sound of The Pig’s terror radius shattered Kate’s fantasy as she slapped a hand over her mouth, realizing she had spoken those words aloud. Loud enough for the killer to hear her. She was on her feet and weaving through the maze of rooms on the bottom floor- she could see the right light emanating from The Pig grow closer and closer- 

A spinning drill blade drove through Kate’s back, sending her flat on the ground with a painful cry. Being able to wiggle out of the killer’s grasp was one of her most useful perks, but sometimes even that wasn’t enough to stop the musician from ending up with a hook through her shoulder. 

Kate barely even noticed the pain however, as being left alone gave her some time to reflect on the four words she had spoken aloud, running them through her mind over and over again. 

“Seriously Kate Denson, you are something else.”

Kate frowned down at Jane Romero as the former talk show host came to bring her down from the hook, both women unusually quiet as they patched up each other’s injuries. 

“You do realize you’ve carried us through the entire trial? And this is your first one after getting mauled by that bastard- you’ve barely even broken a sweat!”

Kate assumed Jane was being metaphorical, because the singer was practically drenched in sweat from all the running she’d done. 

“You know I’ve always been proud of you Kate, even before we got thrown into this hell.”

Kate let out an exasperated sigh. “Jane, I know you mean well- but can you please just stop talking about before-“

“But this is important. You’ve never let anything or anybody stop you from doing what you love. You didn’t let your managers or your mom stop you from trading in your tour bus for a truck and driving around just to play music for those that needed to hear it. You haven’t let your trauma from The Clown stop you from kicking ass better than ever during this trial-”

Jane paused and shifted the weight on her feet before raising her hand to point at Kate. 

“And I know you’re not gonna let anything stop you from finding a way to escape this realm and getting back to doing what you love.”

Kate was touched by the way Jane’s voice caught in her throat. No one had ever reinforced her belief in truly escaping before. She reached out and touched the other woman’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.

“We’ll get you out of here too- I’ll even perform on your show again if you ask nicely enough.“

Kate’s teasing offer was shot down by the defeated look on Jane’s face as she shook her head.

“This is it for me kid- I was taken by The Entity at the bottom of a lake, drugged up on pain meds and definitely past the state of living.” 

Kate felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head. Jane was technically dead in their world?

“J-Jane… I’m so sorry-“

A sad smile spread across the former talk show host’s face. 

“Don’t be- I’ve already come to accept my fate here. But I’ll be damned if I ever see you start doing the same thing, you understand?”

Kate nodded, trying her best to process everything Jane was saying while also trying not to cry. 

A fourth generator chime rang out as The Pig’s terror radius started to grow louder again. 

“You think you’ll be okay with bacon strips for a while until we finish things up here?”

“I could use another dance.”

Kate wiped the sweat off of her brow with her hand and waited for The Pig to find her, giving Jane more than enough time to leave and find the last generator. 

She knew for this next chase she’d have to be more careful, as she was starting to get weary from her injuries- not to mention the nagging tingle in the back of her mind trying to get Kate to fully process those four words.

All of the various thoughts running through her head made her sloppy, earning herself a second hook after she turned around a piece of scaffolding too sharply and tripped. The Pig made quick work of keeping her down with some swift jabs at the backs of her legs. 

She still hadn’t earned herself a Reverse Bear Trap on her head, but Kate could tell the killer’s usual benevolence towards her was fading. 

Camping killers- those who wouldn’t stray too far from a hooked survivor in hopes of catching another one- were always the worst. 

Luckily their best counter for killers who used this strategy was in the current trial with her- Bill Overbeck. He always knew how to unhook survivors in tricky situations and get them out successfully. Though the old veteran had a harder time getting himself out successfully, The Pig turning on him for his own chase that didn’t last nearly as long as Kate’s first two.

None of the other survivors had any intention of leaving Bill behind however, even as the final generator chime rang out.

“Here piggy piggy piggy!” Kate called out as she put two fingers to her mouth and blew out a loud whistle. 

The Pig didn’t seem to like that, as she came barreling around the corner practically tripping over herself in bloodlust heading straight for Kate. 

Kate braced herself and took off towards the large meat freezer on the other end of the lower level, hoping it would be enough distance to buy her teammates enough time to save Bill. 

Bobbing and weaving through disgusting chunks of meat hanging from the ceiling in freezing temperatures, the songwriter let out a relieved sigh as she could see the aura of Bill being carried off of the hook. 

She ducked to narrowly avoid The Pig’s blade tearing open her neck as she vaulted through a window- she just needed to buy the others a little more time to get the exit gates open. Giving herself up to the killer should buy the others just the right amount of time that they needed-

No, there had to be another way. Jane would never forgive her if Kate ever did that.

She wasn’t sure how happy Cheryl would be with her either. 

Kate thought again of the small blonde survivor. How her fantasy involved taking Cheryl’s hand with such care and pulling her close-

“Now is really not the time for gay thoughts…”

The silence that fell over the meat plant when Kate muttered her admission out loud was deafening. The Pig stopped in her tracks and stared at Kate, bringing her arms down and slightly tilting her head in confusion. 

Kate felt her cheeks grow warm as she tried her best to fumble out an explanation.

“That wasn’t- I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking about you. There’s this other survivor- have you met Cheryl already? She’s the little blonde one. I’m sorry if that offends you, I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about her... and wanting to spend more time with her… is this what having a crush is supposed to feel like?”

The Pig stared back at Kate in silence. Her expression was completely unreadable underneath her mask, but based on the way most of her muscles seemed to go slack she must have been dumbfounded that the survivor she’d been hunting for the entire trial just let out such a confession.

“Kate, what are you _doing?_ ”

“Jane!”

The sound of the exit gate opening echoed throughout the bottom floor of the meat plant, and before Kate even realized what was happening she was on the ground clutching a deep gash in her abdomen. 

“Dammit, bitch brought a hex!”

“Jane just run!”

She tried her best to call out to the other survivor, but the pain certainly caused the singer’s voice to come out strangled. The Pig usually wasn’t the kind of killer to bring hexes, specialty perks that killers could attach to small totems constructed around each realm- designed to activate at specific occasions and give the killer special powers and abilities. 

Kate had hoped The Pig would just ignore Jane and sacrifice Kate to get it over with, especially after all of the taunting she had done throughout the match. Instead she left the injured survivor to bleed out on the cold concrete floor as she chased after Jane.

She could somehow tell that the other survivors had left them. She prayed and pleaded that Jane could find a way to the opened gate and escape. Kate didn’t want to die, but she didn’t want Jane to suffer through getting sacrificed trying to save her as well.

Kate rolled her eyes as she could practically hear Jane’s snarky rebuttal in her head.

Is that _all_ you want Kate? 

It was as if Jane always knew her truth. There were other things that Kate wanted, things that she never allowed herself to admit out loud until this very trial- to _The Pig_ of all people.

“Come on now Miss Denson, I think there’s somebody special waiting for you back at the campfire-”

Jane had made her way back down to her, presumably losing the killer at some point during her chase. Kate was beginning to feel too light-headed to think about Jane’s words much, she wasn’t sure how long she’d been bleeding on the floor for. 

The former talk show host had helped her to her feet, and Kate was trying her best to keep up as they scrambled their way up the stairs and around towards the open exit-

Where The Pig was already waiting for them.

She pounced on Jane first, jabbing her blade into her left shoulder before sending her down on the floor with a fluid swipe across her chest. Kate closed her eyes and looked away, swaying with uneven balance as she tried to keep marching on to the gate.

The Pig was cruel, but merciful in a way. Kate was given freedom from having to feel The Entity’s claws impaling her from all sides as she was grabbed by her hair and slammed into the pavement, instantly knocking her out cold. 

“Hey kid, we can just stay here for a bit if you need a minute.”

Kate opened her eyes and blinked up at Jane from behind the tents. She knew their trial had ended a while ago, they had each been sacrificed. She could tell by the hollow ache that throbbed within her chest, a feeling that nothing else in existence could ever replicate.

“No it’s okay.. I-I’m okay-”

It took Kate a few seconds to realize she was sitting, and allowed Jane to help pull herself back onto her feet. She had been murdered and sacrificed so many times during these trials, all she needed was a few deep breaths and maybe a little liquid courage to help her feel back in the present. 

Even if she didn’t survive, getting through another trial again was disturbingly helpful at making her feel normal again after everything that happened with The Clown.

Kate’s first thought after following Jane back into camp was to search for a certain crop of messy blonde hair amongst the survivors that were gathered at the campfire, yet Kate was actually relieved when she didn’t see her.

Maybe Cheryl had followed Kate’s orders and had gone to get some sleep. 

She had hoped that her fantasy from before would fade from her memory after getting sacrificed, but the sight of being back at the campfire only made it feel more vivid in Kate’s mind as her eyes lingered over to the empty space where Cheryl had been sitting in her imagination. 

And then it finally struck her. 

“Dance with me-” Kate murmured the words so softly that only Jane could hear next to her. She felt Jane’s eyes watching her curiously, but somehow she knew Kate wasn’t actually talking to her. 

“Sorry, I have to go-” Was the only thing the hopeful songbird managed to get out before she turned straight towards her tent and tried her best not to run. 

Kate could hear confused murmurs coming from the various survivors that had observed her awkward exchange, but the lightning bolt of adrenaline that shot through her was too exciting for her to care. 

She did smile however as Jane seemed to figure out what was happening with a loud gasp and an excited squeal.

“It’s finally happening!” 

The inspired songwriter quickly ducked into her tent and made a beeline for her bed. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed either Zarina or Yui- Kate couldn’t tell with the two of them cuddled so close together in the dark- had lifted their head to watch as Kate entered.

Just as Kate reached over behind her bed to grasp her book and pen and turn to leave, she finally saw her.

Sleeping rather uncomfortably- with her arms folded tightly together on the bed in the very back corner of the tent- was none other than Cheryl Mason. 

“Oh-” Kate instantly closed her mouth after her surprised noise had escaped, hoping it wasn’t loud enough to wake the sleeping girl. She held her breath as Cheryl started to move, but only shifted awkwardly and remained in her slumber. 

“She’s been waiting here for you to get back you know-” 

Kate still jumped at the sound of Zarina’s voice despite it barely being above a low whisper.

“Even after Bill and Nea got back, she still refused to leave until she knew you came back safe. She’s been here for awhile, but Yui and I were cool with it.”

“She didn’t have to do that…” Kate’s voice trailed off as she kept her eyes fixed on Cheryl, with feelings and thoughts flooding through her mind that she’d previously written songs about- but hadn’t actually felt herself in a long time. 

“She dreams a lot- but most of her dreams seem to be violent and unpleasant.”

Yui’s whisper was just a little groggy as she had clearly been sleeping on Zarina’s shoulder, who furthered Yui’s comment.

“Yeah- she was growling on in her sleep about some bitch named Claudia. It’s not a huge deal since everyone around here gets night terrors all the time, but damn- I hope that shit she talks about in her sleep isn’t real.”

“It might be.”

A heavy silence followed Kate’s admission, before she hopped up on her bed and flipped open her leather-bound book in one swift motion. 

Only the sound of Kate’s scribbling pen could be heard for several more minutes after that. She could feel Yui and Zarina’s careful eyes still on her as she wrote, but her hyperfocus prevented her from caring until Yui finally decided to ask.

“Uhm- Kate?”

“Yeah?” 

“Are you okay?”

Kate finally looked up from her task, glancing rapidly between Yui, Zarina, Cheryl, down at her writing, then back up at Yui. 

“Yeah I’m okay, why wouldn’t I be?”

Yui looked at Kate as if she was the one acting strangely. “Well, it’s just that you’ve been through a lot recently, and you just got sacrificed- how _are_ you so okay right now?”

“I think I might have a couple of good guesses-”

Zarina attempted to duck her face down toward Yui’s ear to hide her comment and her smirk from Kate’s perception, but the singer still caught most of it along with the brief nod in Cheryl’s direction. 

Kate was hoping her tent-mates couldn’t see the way her face fell with worry in the dark. She was so focused on getting her feelings down on paper that she hadn’t even thought about the consequences of others finding out about them. 

Jane clearly knew since she had been there to witness Kate’s confession, but she seemed to have grown a newfound trust in Jane after their last trial together. 

“I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking recently, and I think I’ve finally found some words that are good enough to write down. That’s all- nothing more.” 

Kate didn’t bother looking back up at her friends to know if they seemed convinced or not, but after a few more minutes she could hear them both settle back down into each other’s arms to sleep. 

There wasn’t much light inside the tent for Kate to write under, but she wasn’t willing to leave in exchange for the light of the campfire. It was only polite for her to stay and wait for Cheryl to wake, so that she could let the smaller woman know that she was okay. 

_Another show’s off and runnin’,_  
_Dance with me, cuz there’s a storm commin’_  
_Follow my boots, try to keep up,_  
_Dance with me, until sun up._

Knowing that she was under the protection of being the only one left awake in the tent, Kate allowed herself to have a single longing look at the sleeping Cheryl as she finished jotting down the final chorus. 

The feelings that Kate was starting to have for this small, but brave and caring woman were rather terrifying. It was a fear and anxiousness that the songbird didn’t think she could ever reach after everything she had been through in this realm. 

Yet the feeling that lingered along with it was something else entirely. 

Whatever nightmare Cheryl was having seemed as if it was beginning to calm down, as the tight grimace from the sleeping girl’s face looked as if it was relaxing into something that resembled peace. 

Kate smiled. She was more than okay.

Somehow, she had never felt better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small little announcement for those who've been following this story as I've been updating with each chapter-
> 
> Up until now I've been trying to keep a consistent upload schedule of posting a new chapter at least every three days or so. Unfortunately starting next week I will be going back to college, and thus I will be a lot busier and have a lot less mental energy to work on this story than I currently do. I will tentatively stretch my upload schedule to try and post a new chapter for this story at least once a week, but even that might be subject to change based on what my workload looks like this semester.
> 
> My apologies for the inconvenience, but as always thank you so much for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts!


	7. this is me trying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience with this upload. Minor trigger warning for this chapter- it briefly goes over some mental health recovery issues and struggles with recovery. With that said I hope you enjoy!

Cheryl kept feeling something- or someone- pulling on the back of her hood. 

It happened every once in a while, as each nightmare faded from one to the next- and it was starting to irritate her. 

She was beginning to reach her boiling point as she raced up the steps of the old apartment building she used to live in with her father, checking her digital watch every few seconds to make sure she was going to make it back home in time. Cheryl knew in the back of her mind that she wasn’t actually reading the numbers on the watch, just as much as she knew she wouldn’t actually make it in time.

This dream always ended the same way. She would burst in through the door with her switchblade already in hand, ready to swoop in and take down the intruders- or even surrender herself to them if it meant preventing the inevitable- only to find that she was always too late, and her father was always lying dead and mutilated in that chair. 

There was a slight variation this time however- as halfway up the stairs Cheryl felt something yank on the back of her vest’s hood and sent her tumbling back down the flight of stairs. 

Even while disoriented, Cheryl’s patience was at an end as she pushed herself up to her feet and looked around wildly in search of her assailant. 

“Who keeps doing that?” Cheryl growled the words out as she was met with silence as a response. 

Along with the new feeling of something small tugging on the back of her skirt, almost like tiny hands…

“Fuck _off!_ ”

Cheryl swiftly turned around and kicked at the poor soul who had decided to grab at her skirt, only for her boot to be met with nothing but thin air. She let out a frustrated huff as the panic of not reaching her dad in time was slowly setting in. 

“I don’t have time for this!”

As Cheryl turned to march back up the stairs and resume her crusade, she was stopped in her tracks by the sickening sound of her watch beeping. She didn’t even remember setting an alarm on her watch, but somehow in the logic of her dream she knew what the alarm meant.

That she was too late. 

Familiar tears welled up in her eyes as she could practically hear the sound of the monster from Silent Hill tearing into her father and Claudia’s vicious laughter from the floor above. She fell to her knees at the very bottom step and screamed out for her late father, the torment of her guilt never getting any easier no matter how many times she was forced to relive her worst memory over and over again-

_”I don’t think Heather can hear us little one, we’ll have to try again later when the time is right.”_

_”Oh- please don’t cry. I don’t- I don’t really know how to handle crying children...”_

“I’m sorry!”

Cheryl woke with a start, clutching a firstful of fabric from her vest as she shot upright in bed. She didn’t think much of the voice she faintly heard just before she woke, distracted by her own confusion from the calming pair of blue eyes watching her with concern. 

“You don’t have to be sorry for anything, sleepyhead.”

It took Cheryl a few more seconds to remember that she was in Kate’s tent, and why she was in Kate’s tent to begin with.

“Oh- I’m sorry for falling asleep, I wanted to wait until you got back from the trial so I could-“

“Now what did I just say Cheryl? You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”

Cheryl dared to look back up at Kate’s face again, who now had an amused smile that quickly dropped back into concern. 

“You okay? You looked like you were having a pretty nasty nightmare there-“

Cheryl was thankful that the tent was so dark, hoping Kate couldn’t see her face get any redder with embarrassment. She hadn’t planned on falling asleep, dreading the exact scenario of someone- especially Kate- witnessing her go through one of her more vulnerable nightmares. 

“I’m fine- nothing I’m not used to, but how about you? I feel like I should be the one asking if you are okay-“

Kate closed the book that she’d been holding and set it down in her lap. “Honestly I’m feeling a lot better, despite getting sacrificed. It was overall a pretty good trial, and it felt good to be useful again.”

Cheryl felt relieved to hear that, as now the thought of Kate going into a trial and getting hurt again made her anxious in a way she had never felt before. 

When Kate had gotten taken by The Entity for her most recent trial, Cheryl found herself unable to sit still. She had resigned herself to pacing back and forth along the shore of the lake, until she had caught sight of her reflection on the water’s surface and retreated back to camp feeling even worse.

She was thankful to Zarina and Yui for accepting her request to wait in their tent for Kate to get back, as she had a much easier time calming herself down under the cover of darkness and away from judging eyes. 

“Taking care of yourself is being useful.” Cheryl tried her best to keep the edge out of her voice and keep her reminder as gentle as possible.

But thankfully Kate didn’t seem to protest, the other girl letting out a thoughtful hum that nearly caused Cheryl to shiver. 

“True, but I don’t see it as me not taking care of myself. Bringing people peace of mind has always just been what makes me really happy, nothing more to it.”

Her statement was left with a few moments of silence as Cheryl searched for any trace of disingenuity in Kate’s face, only to find none.

How was this girl even real?

The question repeated itself in Cheryl’s mind when Kate started to stand and stretch her arms up over her head, her rather chiseled upper back muscles facing Cheryl on full display. 

“But maybe I should take a break and go get some food from the campfire- would you like to join me?”

Kate turned and offered Cheryl her hand to help her up, and for a brief instant the smaller blonde could have sworn Kate looked nervous- but the observation seemed to melt completely away by her now warm smile. 

A fading smile that made Cheryl feel instantly guilty that she didn’t take Kate’s hand and instead stood up on her own to lead the way out of the tent. It was a reminder- not for Kate, but for Cheryl. She didn’t want to push people away, especially people like Kate- but she couldn’t have them come too close either. 

Just like her restless dreams had taught her oh so well, anybody who gets too close to Cheryl ends up paying a heavy and painful price. 

The sight of Kate’s smile reminded her that she had a vow to keep. 

With that in mind, Cheryl still felt better sitting by the fire with Kate nearby, choosing to sit on the far end of the same log as her. She pretended not to notice the confused glances from Kate as well as a handful of other survivors who noticed them exiting the same tent together.

Including one Jane Romero, who seemed to be watching Cheryl with close inspecting eyes. She decided to stare right back at the former talk show host questioningly, trying to figure out what exactly Jane seemed to be expecting of her. 

But finally Jane decided to break the silence. “Cheryl, Kate, would either of you be interested in some stew that Bill made?”

Kate- who hadn’t noticed any of this go on as she was staring off into the forest with her pen between her lips- jumped slightly and shook her head.

“Oh- yes that would be lovely, thank you.”

Both girls were handed a small bowl before Cheryl even had the chance to answer. She didn’t want to seem like she had been watching Kate, but she was admittedly curious as to what seemed to be on the country singer’s mind. 

The stew seemed to have small chunks of beef and various vegetables, and while it didn’t appear very appetizing Cheryl actually found herself enjoying it. Most of the food the survivors could find and cook with didn’t seem to have the best quality ingredients, but they made the best with what they had. 

Pretty much anything was better than the various frozen meals and boxed mac n cheese that she grew up with. Neither Cheryl nor her father knew how to cook, besides the occasional simple meal that they found online and would attempt to cook together- only to end up failing miserably and going out to _Happy Burger_ instead.

Cheryl never went back to that restaurant once since he died, the mere smell of those greasy burgers made her nauseous with the memory. 

She still missed it terribly. 

“So Kate, how’s the writing going?”

Cheryl blinked up in surprise, looking at Jane as she asked her question and then quickly back over to Kate as she finally realized what was going on with her.

The young veteran of terror was even more surprised when Kate stared at the ground and seemed almost sheepish to answer. 

“It’s… it’s been going a lot better than I thought. I’ve got all the lyrics down, I’m just struggling to find the right sound for it.”

Cheryl was tempted to ask about what her new song was about, but she was afraid to ask given how strangely timid the songwriter was acting. She knew Kate Denson was as humble as humility could get, but even this was enough to make Cheryl raise an eyebrow. 

Wasn’t Kate a grammy winning songwriter?

“I’ve got the melody all in my head and ready to go, but it’s hard to map everything out onto paper without my guitar to help me.” 

Silence fell upon the campfire for several moments as Kate opened her book back up and started scribbling out various lines and music notes onto the page.

Cheryl decided to break the silence herself, hoping her vulnerable honesty didn’t raise too many eyebrows amongst the other survivors- but she was willing to run the risk if it helped ease Kate’s nerves.

“Well, you’ve got my faith. Even if I’m not much of a country music fan, there’s no denying that you’re a brilliant songwriter and a very talented musician. If anybody here can do it, it’s you.”

She hadn’t expected her voice to soften slightly on the final word, so Cheryl found herself shoveling down a huge mouthful of stew to take her mind off of it. 

The others seemed to find it amusing however, as she was finally granted an approving smile from Jane. 

“I couldn’t have said it better myself kid.”

“I agree, thank you Cheryl.”

Kate’s smile was always a worthwhile reward, but Cheryl still couldn’t help but feel strange at the way the other girl kept her attention locked onto her notes, her expression hiding under the shimmer of golden hair that fell over her eyes. 

That was when Cheryl noticed that Kate hadn’t even touched her stew, and the smaller blonde realized with a sigh that she was going to draw even more attention to herself with her more direct approach.

Cheryl reached over with her foot and tapped the side of Kate’s brown leather boot with her own, waiting until the other woman seemed to react next to her before speaking up.

“Hey- I know you’re doing good work and all, but didn’t you tell me before you were coming out here to take a break? You should eat something.”

When Kate finally turned and met her eyes, Cheryl made sure to keep the contact steady until the daze seemed to slowly clear from her face. 

It was a haze that Cheryl knew all too well. The kind that she’d get lost in when she found herself enamored in reading a particular story, or when she’d spent hours and hours writing out the perfect ending to one of her father’s unfinished short stories.

Or the bad kind of haze, when Cheryl would get lost in a horrific memory. 

She waited until Kate showed some form of recognition, breaking the eye contact when the musician finally cleared her throat and nodded, setting her book and pen down on the ground behind them. 

It was then that Cheryl realized keeping Kate Denson at a safe distance was going to be harder than she thought. 

Just as she was nearly finished with her stew did the campfire start to turn black and sizzle. Cheryl grimaced in anticipation until the first trail of smoke that came out through the top of the fire went straight for herself.

She noticed a second trail heading for Quentin’s tent and wondered if the No Sleep Gang was going to get another chance to test their winning streak. It was an interesting friendship Cheryl and Quentin had, considering how paranoid he was of her when she first arrived. But that was where the two found common ground and what they started to bond over- their inability to escape misfortune and constant fear of the nightmares lurking around in their own heads. 

Cheryl thought she heard the faintest sound of Kate’s voice calling out to her, but by the time she turned towards the other girl she could no longer make out what Kate was saying over the thickening fog. 

She could have been mistaken, but Cheryl wondered if Kate had been reaching out to her just before the fog enveloped her world and the scorching sting of The Entity’s teleportation took over her thoughts.

In a sick and twisted way, Cheryl smiled. She didn’t even need to open her eyes to know exactly where she was. 

“Would you consider this a home court advantage for the No Sleep Gang?”

Cheryl opened her eyes and looked over at Quentin, trying and failing to keep her voice from sounding hollow.

“Welcome to Silent Hill. Follow me, the closest generator is up here-”

This was technically Cheryl’s first time ever setting foot in Midwich Elementary School herself, but the mere sight of the classroom they had spawned in brought back so many memories that weren’t her own. 

She weaved her way out of the classroom quickly, not wanting to stick around too long. She didn’t want all of these memories, she didn’t want to stare at the pile of desks all crumpled together and remember which one was hers- no, Alessa’s. 

“Cheryl wait- are you okay?”

Cheryl hadn’t even realized she had closed her eyes again until Quentin had called out to her, opening them and finding herself at the top of a flight of stairs. She was also out of breath- had she been running?

“I’m fine- it’s just a little surreal to see this place again I guess.”

Quentin nodded and hurried up the steps after her. Once he caught up to her she didn’t bother to look back as she strode into the first classroom on the right, twisting to kneel down at the generator she knew would be directly on her left. 

For three years Cheryl wondered about what she’d do if she ever found herself back in Silent Hill. She did more than just wonder about it, she spent a countless number of sleepless nights toiling about the possibility. She’d run the thoughts and scenarios through her mind over and over again- on her bad days she’d wear it down to the brink of psychosis. 

She was thankful she’d never been hospitalized. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if Douglas hadn’t found a way to assign himself to her mandated wellness checks, or if NYU hadn’t had such an accommodating disability program for her. 

Cheryl had tried her best to recover, she really did. But even on her good days, the dark and lonely nights of trying not to get stuck in her own head would make her so weary-

Maybe that was why The Entity had chosen her. It knew she wanted to fight, but it also knew that deep down she was going to lose-

“So did you actually go to school here?”

Quentin’s question snapped Cheryl’s mind right back into reality, of which she was grateful for- but admittedly found herself at a loss as to how to properly answer his question. 

“Technically, no. I never went to school here personally, but I have memories of it. It’s a bit of a long story but uh…”

She let out a sound that was somewhere between a humorless laugh and a snort.

“I guess you could say I’m not like other girls-”

Quentin laughed. “Fair enough. I’m not gonna pretend to know or understand the kinds of things you’ve been through. But if you being back here feels at all like the way I feel when I get sent to Springwood-”

Quentin stopped working on the generator repairs and turned to face Cheryl directly.

“Just know that you’re allowed to feel scared if you are.”

Cheryl kept her eyes focused on her generator repairs until the machine chimed and lit up before their eyes.

“That’s just it though- I _should_ be scared out of my mind right now, but I’m _not_.”

She wanted to add how being back in this place actually made her feel _better_ than she did before. She felt _stronger,_ more confident- less scared than she had felt in years. 

But the words were all caught in her throat with a wet cough when she noticed the chalkboard on the wall behind Quentin.

“Hey Quen, do you know anything about that writing over there?”

Cheryl gestured quickly to the handwriting on the chalkboard, waiting until his attention was no longer on her before she wiped off the blood she had coughed into her hand with her skirt- hoping the boy didn’t even notice. 

It happened often enough to a point where she wasn’t medically concerned with herself at all. 

“I uh, I don’t see anything there. Are you sure you’re feeling okay Cheryl?”

For a fleeting microsecond, Cheryl wondered if she’d finally lost her mind. But she ultimately decided that if she had, it was her problem to deal with. 

“Yeah, I’m okay. There’s another generator just at the end of the hall, I’ll meet you there as soon as I loot this chest over here-”

Cheryl stood up and waited for Quentin to hesitantly leave, thankful that the boy never noticed that there wasn’t even a chest in the classroom at all. 

_Erase this message as soon as it gets to you- it doesn’t know about me._  
_Please don’t fuck this up Heather._

Initially Cheryl had wondered if Quentin had written the message as a way of messing with her, as he was the only other survivor who knew about her former name. But she had seen the boy with her repairing the generator the entire time- 

Which meant that this was someone or something else trying to contact her. 

She wasn’t sure how it was possible to receive messages from outside of The Entity’s Realm, but she also knew all too well that the spirits of Silent Hill played by their own rules. And amongst those spirits, Cheryl knew she had more enemies than friends- more or less due to herself containing the strongest spirit of them all. 

She still technically did as she was told and erased the message off of the chalkboard, before she picked up her own piece of chalk and decided to write a message of her own.

_I’m not doing shit until you show me who you are._

Cheryl smiled to herself, proud of her own handiwork until she heard the sound of the killer’s terror radius grow closer. She didn’t even know who the killer was, but the sound of breaking glass and Quentin crying out in pain caused Cheryl to drop the chalk she was holding and start running.

She raced out into the hall and ran towards the source of where Quentin’s voice had come from, only hesitating briefly when she took in the sight of pink smoke trailing down towards her. 

Crawling out of the pink cloud was Quentin on the ground, coughing and sputtering as he reached out to Cheryl.

“Don’t breathe in the ga-”

A large figure from behind him reached out and yanked Quentin up from the ground by the back of the shirt, lifting him over the killer’s shoulder. The figure finally emerged from the fog, giving Cheryl a pretty good clue at who the killer was based on the pink and blue greasepaint smile and the sickeningly decorative clothes.

“I take it you must be The Clown.”

Cheryl’s low growl was dangerous enough to cut through stone, even causing The Clown to pause and glance at her over his shoulder before turning away and headed back into the pink cloud with her friend over his shoulder. 

So this was the monster who hurt Kate. 

It was a good thing Cheryl was exceptionally well-versed in hunting down monsters. 

Her flickering memories told her not to let her rage take over, that people would die if she got too angry or upset with them. Images of mangled bodies still in their classroom seats-

No, that wasn’t her. She was Cheryl Mason. Cheryl Mason had never been here before. She wouldn’t hurt innocent people.

But Cheryl Mason _did_ need some of Alessa’s memories. Just a little sliver, just enough to remember her way around and reign a little vengeance on the man who had tortured the girl she was admittedly starting to care about quite more than a little. 

Cheryl charged straight into the pink cloud of gas that was slowly starting to clear, but it hadn’t cleared enough to leave her unaffected. Her lungs burned and her vision blurred, but Cheryl merely closed her eyes and endured the pain to avoid coughing too much. She still knew exactly where she was going. 

The Clown barely noticed as she zipped on past him and ducked into the library. Sure enough, there was a chest waiting for her in the corner exactly where she knew it would be. It took her a few moments to figure out how to jiggle open the lock- Ace usually made it look so easy- but she finally pried the large trunk open and scooped up the purple flashlight she had been looking for. 

Quentin cried out from the distance, presumably ending up on a hook. She hoped The Clown had seen her enter the library, because she was ready for him. 

A glass bottle hurtled past her face as Cheryl narrowly rolled out of the way in time. Her rising back up to her feet would have been more graceful if she hadn’t tripped and stumbled on the yearbook lying on the ground- was that Alessa’s class yearbook?

She recognized it, but didn’t have time to dwell on it as The Clown had suddenly gotten a lot closer and was lunging at her with his knife. 

The smoke had distorted her vision once again, but Cheryl honestly couldn’t care less. The Clown’s attack had missed her head by a laughably wide margin as she spun around the killer and ran out through the way she came in. 

She made it halfway down the hall before she stopped and waited. Her closed eyes and cruel smile returned once she could hear the bastard’s wheezing grow closer, twisting around and shining the flashlight directly into his eyes. Cheryl took a few steps back as she held her flashlight steady, keeping her aim consistent while also keeping herself at just enough distance where he couldn’t attack her. 

The Clown sputtered and groaned in pain, but Cheryl wasn’t going to let up. No matter how many times the killer wheezed and rubbed at his eyes, she kept going until she could practically _hear_ the stinging heat from the flashlight’s beam singe his retinas. 

She knew in her minimal experience that the flashlight batteries never lasted longer than a few seconds, but Cheryl paid no mind when the flashlight finally started to flicker out and die. 

As the killer continued to roar out in pain and clutch at his face, Cheryl could now see the large key ring that was clipped to his belt.

Her rage halted for a heartbeat as her eyes locked onto the two slender index fingers that once belonged to Kate Denson, Cheryl’s breath catching as the sight caused her fury to come roaring back and boil over.

“This is for Kate, you _fucking dick!_ ” 

Once the battery of the flashlight was fully depleted Cheryl merely raised her arm and grunted out with effort as she launched the flashlight down the hall, striking The Clown right in between the eyes.

She didn’t stick around to relish in The Clown’s reaction, using the time she bought herself to search for Quentin on the hook. She found him just down the next hall near the music room, already in stage two and trying to hold back The Entity’s claws from skewering him.

Cheryl was just a few feet away when a new figure suddenly stepped out and helped him down from the hook. 

“Sorry I wasn’t here sooner, but I’m sure you know how Feng Min can be about ‘committing’ to finishing a gen once you’ve already started helping her with it-”

Cheryl admittedly hadn’t spent much time around Jeff Johansen. He certainly looked like a rather cool person to hang around with, at least to Cheryl. He was nearly twice her size, with long dark hair and a beard to match his equally dark clothes. He and Cheryl simply never had many chances to meet each other formally before now. 

Kate mentioned to her once that Jeff was a pretty nice guy, and Cheryl trusted Kate.

The thought of the musician caused an older memory of Alessa’s to strike her suddenly, an idea lighting up the night in Cheryl’s head. 

She turned to Jeff, who had already begun to heal up Quentin’s wounds and was glancing over at her expectantly.

“I’ll be right back, I have to take care of something really quick-”

Jeff didn’t seem to question it much as Cheryl disappeared into the music room, making a beeline for the desk just next to the piano and began to dig around through various cardboard boxes.

“Come on, I know it’s here…”

She pushed over several boxes, not caring about the noise as they crashed to the ground and spilled out their contents over the floor. If The Clown happened to hear her noises and come looking to sacrifice her, Cheryl would be more than happy to kick his ass again.

It was the largest box at the very bottom of the pile that had what Cheryl was looking for. She knew next to nothing about guitars, so she had no clue if the old wooden instrument was in a decent enough condition to even play.

“I take it you plan on giving that to Kate?”

Cheryl turned and failed miserably at hiding the acoustic guitar behind her back, but Jeff merely let out a soft laugh and started rummaging around in his own pockets. 

“I used to play guitar myself, and while that thing’s just barely in a good enough shape to play, she’ll have an easier time if you also give her one of these-”

Jeff pulled a small piece of plastic out of his pocket and tossed it to Cheryl, who caught it between her two fingers with ease. She weaved the slender guitar pick through her fingers for a moment before placing it in her own vest pocket for safe keeping. 

“Thank you, but why not just give it to Kate yourself?”

Jeff smiled and kept his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans as he studied the floorboards. 

“When I first arrived, Kate did everything in her power to make sure I was comfortable and knew how to handle myself around here- even though she was still fairly new to things herself at the time. As I got to know her better, I tried my best to repay that kindness she showed me- only to find there really wasn’t much I could do for her.”

“She does prefer to help others over accepting help herself-” 

Cheryl's comment caused Jeff to nod before he reached up to point directly at her.

“But you’re different- you somehow managed to get through to her, found a way to look out for her without making her feel worse off for it-”

“She just wants me to fit in and be comfortable around here like everybody else, so I’m just trying to show her that I am.”

Jeff tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her, glancing between Cheryl and the guitar that she had in her hands before raising his arms up in defeat.

“I’m just saying, I see the way she looks at you Cheryl. It’s like you’re a second campfire, and she looks to you for a source of light- and you look at her like she’s just as warm.”

Cheryl flinched as if she’d been struck over the head, taking a couple of steps back.

“Oh- I’m sorry if I said too much, I thought you already knew how you felt about her.”

“No it’s okay. I just… please don’t tell her how I feel, okay?”

Cheryl was clutching the neck of the guitar so tightly it looked like she was trying to protect herself with it, practically shaking. She hadn’t felt this exposed in a very long time, her mind short-circuiting in panic trying to figure out what to do about it.

Jeff himself seemed to lower his hands and took a slow step in her direction. 

“Of course I won’t tell her, but may I ask why you don’t want her to know?”

“Why?” Cheryl let out a cold laugh, her chest pounding as her heart threatened to snap in two.

“Take a good look around Jeff, I mean _really_ look at this place. _This_ is what I really am! Do you _honestly_ think that this is what Kate Denson deserves?”

Cheryl hadn’t realized how much her voice had raised in volume, her raised arms freezing in place when she started to hear her own voice echoing off of the walls. She quickly lowered her arms and tried her best to drop her voice back to a low volume.

“I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t think so.”

She shouldered her way past the man who now knew her darkest secrets despite barely knowing him minutes prior and stormed off. She tried her best to calm herself down while also keeping an eye out for The Clown in the very probable case that he had heard her. 

Cheryl knew she couldn’t run around for the rest of the trial with a rather large musical instrument in her hands, so she crossed the hall into the girl’s restroom, and dropped down to the other bathrooms below through a small hole in the floor. 

A third generator chime rang out, which usually meant that at this point they were in pretty good shape.

Yet it was unfortunately followed by the loud cry of Quentin getting downed again by The Clown, his red aura visible on the floor in the classroom just next to the music room that Cheryl had come from. 

She couldn’t help but feel responsible when she saw The Clown scoop him up and head straight for a hook to sacrifice him. The Clown wouldn’t have been drawn there if Cheryl hadn’t lost it in front of Jeff moments prior. 

She propped the guitar up on the wall next to where the mirror and sink would have been if it hadn’t been clearly ripped out, but Cheryl wasn’t going to complain. She was grateful these bathrooms didn’t have any mirrors- one less thing for her to worry about. 

Cheryl was about to turn and leave when a soft sound stopped her dead in her tracks. 

Coming from the very last stall was the sound of quiet sobbing. As Cheryl slowly crept closer, she wondered if the sound was even real- it couldn’t be…

The crying girl in the closed stall sounded young- very young. Yet what confused Cheryl the most was that the crying girl sounded _exactly_ like her.

“Uhm… Cheryl?”

Her own name sounded foreign on her lips, but she didn’t bother to dwell on it as the crying ceased the instant she spoke.

An excited gasp suddenly echoed through the closed stall, along with the sound of little feet hopping onto the floor. Yet when Cheryl tried to look under the stall and see who the feet belonged to, there was no one there. 

“Are you still there Cheryl? Are you okay?” 

The thought of talking to herself seemed strange- though not the first time she had done so. As more seconds passed and the silence persisted, Cheryl genuinely wondered if there was anyone even there to begin with- had she just imagined it?

A new cry rang out through the school, this time by Feng Min. Cheryl didn’t want to lose any other survivors, running out of the bathroom in search of where The Clown was chasing the other survivor. 

She couldn’t hear any more movement as she headed down the hall, her pace slowing as she passed the courtyard’s entrance. 

Cheryl hadn’t really been keeping track at all of how long she had been in The Entity’s Realm already, but it must have been longer than she thought by how the sight of rainfall actually unnerved her at first. 

She slowly stepped out into the courtyard and held out her hand. The rain felt... warm. In a strange way, Cheryl finally managed to find something in Silent Hill that made her feel oddly at peace. 

Then her eyes ruined it by drifting downward, catching the sight of her reflection in a puddle. Cheryl immediately gasped and stomped down on the puddle to ripple her image, but it did little to calm her spiking emotions as she quickly retreated back into the school’s walls. 

She couldn’t even begin to think about the seal of Metatron she caught out of the corner of her eye, the ominous symbol drawn out onto the stones in the very center of the courtyard- clearly in blood. 

What a fool she had been to think there was something pleasant about this place, the very epitome of who she was. 

She finally caught Min’s aura as she was downed by The Clown as well, and that was when Cheryl realized with dread that the killer was exceptionally angry from her own prior attack. Just by viewing her aura, she could see that Feng Min’s wrist was nearly snapped clean in half.

Cheryl could see them heading for a hook on the second floor, the young veteran of terror hurrying up the steps of the nearby staircase to make her way over and try to save her teammate-

Until something pulled hard hard on the back of her hood, sending her falling back down the stairs like she had in her nightmare.

Only this time, the back of Cheryl’s head smashed into the very last step- causing everything to go black.

_”That was so mean of you!”_

_”Okay I admit, that one was definitely on me- but how was I supposed to know that she was going to fall and hurt herself with such gracelessness?”_

Cheryl knew for sure she was hearing voices this time as her eyes snapped open. A small part of her was honestly hoping that this past trial was nothing but another awful nightmare, and that she would wake up relatively safe in Kate’s tent to the same pair of deep blue eyes that would somehow manage to reassure Cheryl she wasn’t a complete failure- 

But the cold floor beneath her as well as the lump of raw flesh just inches from her face told her that she was definitely still at Silent Hill. 

Cheryl tried to get up quickly, but the throbbing in the back of her head caused her vision to blur. She tried to fight through it and stand up anyways, but the second she tried to put weight on her right leg she learned the hard way that she had broken something.

Cheryl fell to the ground once more and had to slap a hand over her mouth to muffle her painful scream. Her right ankle felt like it was on fire-

And with a quick inspection it became clearer that it definitely wasn’t supposed to be bending that way.

“I believe I asked you to show me who you are, not ruin my trial for me-”

Clearly Cheryl’s response must have angered whatever spirit was trying to contact her, or they simply had ill-intentions for her the entire time. Either way, this was the first time Cheryl had ever seen or heard of a survivor downing themselves in a trial without any intervention in the slightest from the killer. 

Cheryl was just going to have to make due and hope that she could find Jeff or Min to help her up and hopefully bandage her well enough to keep going. Otherwise there was always the option of giving herself up to The Clown for the sake of not burdening the remaining survivors. 

As tempting as that sounded, Cheryl wasn’t sure if Kate would be too happy with her for that.

Perhaps as a backup plan. 

Cheryl crawled on her hands and with her non-injured leg, hoping to find a remaining survivor. The dread slowly crept into her when she found herself unable to see or feel any of the other’s auras.

“This is probably a bad idea, but hello?”

Her only response was the echo of a sickening crunch, which Cheryl disturbingly recognized from her first excursion at Silent Hill as the sound of someone’s spinal cord getting crushed. Cheryl couldn’t tell if it was Jeff or Min who had gotten killed by The Clown, but she did know now for sure that everyone else was dead- and that she was all alone.

Her death was inevitable. She didn’t want to die, it was one of the few things left in this realm that still left her feeling so afraid. Cheryl knew there was next to nothing that she could do, yet she still found herself crawling- almost as if someone was tugging on her hood and leading her into the bathroom. 

It was almost comical that the first thing Cheryl saw was the guitar that she had planned to give to Kate still propped up on the wall- and not the large metal trap door that had suddenly appeared and loudly swung open on its own. 

The hatch. Many of the other survivors had informed her of the hatch before. It could either be opened with specific types of keys, or it would open on its own if there was only one survivor left alive. 

Cheryl wasn’t sure where The Clown was at this point, and was almost disappointed that he wasn’t nearby to watch her escape. Even under such excruciating pain, Cheryl still wanted to gloat. 

The way that the thick black fog trailed from the open hatch and practically whispered to her was something Cheryl found rather unnerving. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but she made sure to grab Kate’s guitar before she braced herself and dropped headfirst into the visually bottomless hole. 

She certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to catch her, causing Cheryl to yell out in surprise when she fell into a pair of arms. The person holding her yelled out in surprise too, immediately dropping her. 

The ground felt like soft grass. 

“Why did you just _fall_ like that? You scared me half to death! Actually no, that’s a poor choice of words considering- oh why did you bring that piece of junk down here with you!”

Cheryl reached out into the darkness and grasped onto the guitar that had fallen when she was dropped, hoping she hadn’t broken it during her fall. 

“Can she hear us now? I hope she can, I wanna ask her if she brought the guitar for me!”

“No little one, the guitar’s not for you. It’s probably for that one girl she’s mooning over- the one who couldn’t follow the _only_ task I asked of her- not that you could do as I asked either Heather, maybe you two are perfect for each other.”

Cheryl sputtered, her mind reeling as she tried to process what the two voices were saying and pitifully scramble away from them.

“Who the fuck are you people?”

“Can you please watch your language Heather? There’s a _child_ present!”

“But didn’t you write that bad word on the chalkboard earlier?”

“That was a calculated risk little Cheryl, one that clearly didn’t pay off-”

“Wait wait wait- who’s little Cheryl?”

Cheryl was trying her best to sit up now, readying the guitar in her hands in case she needed to use it as a weapon.

“Shockingly enough, not you. Now stop freaking out and let us help you-”

Cheryl still couldn’t see anything, but she tried to squirm and wriggle out of the foriegn grasp that tucked under her arms and helped her stand on her uninjured foot. Whoever was helping her took most of Cheryl’s weight as they slowly and steadily started to lead her through the darkness- or whichever direction the small hand tugging gently on Cheryl’s skirt was leading them in. 

“We’ll get you back to your camp and to your girl safe and sound Heather, but we have quite a bit to tell you about on the way. I don’t know how you haven’t figured it out yet, since you’re supposed to be as clever as I am- well as _we_ are. I’m Alessa Gillespie, and you need to listen carefully through that concussion of yours- this is of utmost importance to all of us…”


	8. Cruel Summer

There was always a small part of Kate that knew it would be different when her muse finally returned to her in this place. Yet it still felt so surreal that her muse decided to return in the form of the brooding and never-ending mystery that was Cheryl Mason. 

Per Cheryl’s request, Kate did end up finishing her stew before getting right back to sketching out chord progressions for _Dance With Me_. It was still so easy for the young songwriter to get lost in her work once she was inspired enough- but she was finding her progress somewhat halted now that Cheryl was no longer at her side.

It wasn’t that Kate needed Cheryl’s presence in order to be inspired by her- ever since Kate became aware of her feelings for Cheryl there wasn’t much room left in the inspired musician’s mind to think about anything else. 

She was admittedly ashamed with herself for not realizing how she felt sooner- even all the way back during their trial together Kate could recall the tingle of joy she’d felt when they completed a generator and Cheryl had truly smiled at her for the first time. 

Or even before that, when Kate had made Cheryl laugh by confessing that her favorite Shakespeare play was _Romeo and Juliet_.

Kate could even recall feeling a magnetic pull of interest when they had first laid eyes on each other- when all Cheryl needed to do was push the bangs out of her face and stare back at Kate in that way no one else ever had before.

It was all too much, normally Kate was well-trained in redirecting any thoughts and feelings that were ‘undesirable for her career’ and pushing them more towards her songwriting as an outlet- but it was quickly becoming clear that her newfound feelings for the newest survivor were increasingly harder to contain within the confines of her heart and her words. 

Kate couldn’t help but feel anxiously helpless now that Cheryl had been pulled into a trial, and she found it difficult to concentrate on her work through her nerves as she found herself fidgeting with the pen in her hands. 

“Easy there Denson, we don’t have any replacements for that pen if you break it.”

Zarina and Yui thankfully appeared on either side of Kate at the campfire, with Zarina herself linking an arm around Kate’s in a gesture that felt comforting for her growing anguish.

“We asked around to double-check for you, and found out that she’s in the trial with Feng, Quentin and Jeff. She’s going to be just fine.”

Kate was grateful that Yui had kept her voice low enough for only the three friends to hear, trying her best to feel relieved that Cheryl had been paired with those survivors. Feng had a tendency to be callous at times, but she was great at getting objectives done and her fierce sense of competition ultimately made her a valuable asset in any trial. Quentin was Cheryl’s friend, so Kate knew with relief that they would watch out for each other and hopefully he would keep Cheryl safe.

And if all else failed, Kate trusted Jeff. He was like the father Kate wished she always had, gentle and soft spoken but also fiercely protective and loyal. 

Ironically, Cheryl herself was the only variable that worried Kate about Cheryl’s safety. She hadn’t been in any other trials with her since their first match with The Executioner at the Yamaoka Estate, but based on the stories of her exploits told from other survivors- it was a miracle Cheryl had never been sacrificed yet. 

She was incredibly reckless and impulsive, but apparently quite caring. Kate would hear about all the ways Cheryl would catch the killer’s attention and direct them away from injured survivors, or quietly find a way to repair multiple generators without detection- even using her secret power to keep the generators from regressing whenever the killers decided to get aggressive. 

Kate had never seen Cheryl use her power before in a trial- a perk that the woman herself decided to dub ‘repressed alliance’. She never understood why the others were so apprehensive by Cheryl’s ability to summon The Entity at will- but that was probably because Kate was likely the only survivor who wasn’t actually afraid of The Entity.

She had bested it once before she was taken, perhaps some day she’ll find a way to do it again and escape. 

The sudden pounding sound could be heard all the way from the campfire, causing several survivors to perk up in surprise. Kate however, knew exactly what the sound meant and shot out of her seat like a bullet- Zarina diving behind her to catch the notebook and pen that flew out of the songwriter’s lap and ensured Kate’s hard work didn’t end up falling into the flames. 

Before any other survivor could make it there first, Kate ran as fast as she could and zipped behind Dwight’s tent. The pounding sound was paired with the creaking of rusted metal from the hinges of the hatch, whoever was on the other side was feebly trying to force it open from underneath.

The hatch had been rigged so that it could only be opened from the outside, just in case anyone who wasn’t a survivor tried to use it to enter their camp. Usually whenever there was an escaped survivor on the other side, they would have to rely on someone from camp to come and open it themselves. 

Maybe Kate could somehow sense it, or maybe it was just her own desperate hope- but she knew exactly who was on the other side. It took a considerable amount of effort, but Kate was finally able to fumble open the lock with nervous hands and throw open the hatch.

“Cheryl?”

Kate called out softly into the darkness. Unlike the trapdoor that would appear during trials, the hatch at camp didn’t spill out any ominous black fog- but it was still quite difficult to see anything down there.

For a few moments there was nothing but her own heartbeat to fill the silence, until the very last thing that Kate could have expected suddenly emerged from the darkness. 

A guitar?

“Well this kind of ruins the surprise- delivery for Kate Denson?”

Kate quickly took the guitar from Cheryl’s hands and set it down beside her at the hatch. She was left completely speechless, but the sound of how weak Cheryl’s voice was took priority over the new gift she had received. 

As Cheryl slowly started to emerge from the hatch Kate immediately took her hand to pull the smaller girl up, unapologetically scanning around her body for injuries.

At first Kate couldn’t spot any, until Cheryl had taken her first step out of the hatch onto her right foot and immediately started to go down with a hiss of pain. Kate reacted lightning fast to catch her however, wrapping her arms around Cheryl’s waist as her head fell right into the crook of Kate’s shoulder.

“Sorry-”

Kate shushed Cheryl’s attempt at mumbling an apology with ease. “Don’t you start with that- you’re hurt. We need to get you to Claudette right now-”

A handful of other survivors heard the commotion and gathered to see who had made it back from the trial alive. Yui came forward right away and extended her arms to help carry Cheryl, but Kate responded with a soft grunt of effort as she swept her arm underneath Cheryl to scoop up her legs- now holding the smaller survivor bridal style as the others made way for her to carry Cheryl over to Claudette’s tent. 

Kate now had a better view of Cheryl’s injury, the foot of her brown boot completely twisting in the opposite direction- yet Cheryl herself didn’t seem to be in that much pain. Her face was hauntingly pale as she kept glancing back over at the hatch. 

Kate couldn’t quite tell if it was just her injuries of if there was something else that was bothering the girl in her arms, but Kate herself wouldn’t let her focus drift any farther from getting Cheryl to Claudette’s tent.

Someone must have already told Claudette that Cheryl made it back, as she was already waiting for them with her tent’s flap open. 

“Somebody go fetch Bill, her ankle will need to be repositioned back into place-“

As soon as Kate gently set Cheryl down on a bed in Claudette’s tent she turned back around to leave, before she stopped at the feeling of a light tapping on her shoulder.

“I meant somebody _else,_ you should stay Kate.”

Kate felt herself frowning, unsure why the self-taught medic wanted her to stay with Cheryl. She opened her mouth to ask if there was anything else she could do to help before Cheryl spoke first.

“Did they come up through the hatch too?”

Kate noticed Claudette tilt her head curiously at the question as well as the way Cheryl was slowly wandering her eyes around the tent, as if she was expecting to see somebody who wasn’t there. 

“Cheryl, nobody else came up through the hatch, you must have been the only one who escaped. Were the other survivors in the trial with you sacrificed?”

Cheryl attempted to nod her head before Claudette started shining a bright flashlight across her eyes, causing the smaller girl to wince and try to swat the flashlight away with her hands.

If Kate hadn’t been so worried about Cheryl’s condition, she would have found it unbearably cute. 

“During your trial, did you hit your head at some point- or did the killer hit your head at all?”

Cheryl’s face scrunched up adorably as if she was in deep thought.

“She- I was pulled down some stairs, by the back of my hood. I was knocked out for awhile.”

“Which killer was it that pulled you? The Huntress? The Pig? The Spirit?”

Claudette’s question caused Cheryl’s eyes to widen as if she made a sudden realization.

“Uhm, no. No it wasn’t a killer, I just- fell.”

Kate turned to Claudette helplessly, unable to tell if the injured girl was lying or if something was truly wrong with her head- or both.

But Claudette herself didn’t seem to be too concerned as she adjusted her glasses and gave Kate the reply she was looking for.

“She seems to have a pretty nasty concussion- I believe that she’s just a little confused right now. These kinds of head injuries can cause memory problems, dizziness, sensitivity to light, poor reaction time, and vision problems.”

Kate looked back over at Cheryl, who seemed to be looking back at Kate with a sullen expression on her face. 

“I was supposed to give you something Kate, but I must have forgotten it back in the bathroom-”

Cheryl blinked slowly as her eyes drifted down to her own hands, looking genuinely somber. 

“No Cheryl, you gave me the guitar when I first opened the hatch to pull you out. Thank you so much for that by the way, it’s really lovely.”

The guitar was quite lovely. It would definitely require some handiwork from Kate in order to get it sounding properly, but the musician was beyond touched that Cheryl had been thoughtful enough to retrieve something for Kate that couldn’t have been easy to take from a trial- especially given Cheryl’s injuries.

“I’m going to have to take her boot off now in order to get a better look at her broken ankle. You’ll need to hold her steady, as this is going to hurt.”

Claudette glanced in Kate’s direction and nodded her head towards Cheryl, the singer following the direction and moving in closer until their legs were touching. Unsure of how exactly to go about holding Cheryl without making her uncomfortable, Kate went with lightly wrapping her right arm around the woman’s upper back and her left arm just around Cheryl’s stomach and resting at her waist. 

“I don’t know if this is all necessary-” Cheryl started, making Kate feel guilty for how nervous she sounded. “I swear I won’t flinch at all, I’m usually pretty good with pain-”

“I think she just wants me to keep you steady because you’re all wobbly right now, you fell and hit your head, remember?”

Kate kept her voice soft since her mouth was so close to Cheryl’s ear, hoping to help her feel more comfortable with a light and teasing tone- praying that Kate’s own growing anxiety didn’t show on her face when Cheryl only looked even more confused.

“I hit my head? When did I-”

Cheryl’s body suddenly stiffened as her eyes closed and her lips pursed tightly together as Claudette gently removed her boot.

Kate used to be a relatively squeamish person, but her time amongst all of the blood and violence of The Entity’s Realm had desensitized her to extremes. She’d seen her closest friends gutted alive and ripped apart. The sight of the gore had gotten easier to bear with time, but the empathy of watching those she cared about in pain never got any easier for the hopeful songbird. 

It wasn’t even the first time Kate had seen another survivor endure an injury like this before, but for some reason the sight of Cheryl’s twisted and mangled tibular joint sent a wave of nausea through her. She tried to turn her head away, only to realize that the only place for Kate’s face to go was in soft blonde hair.

Kate immediately mumbled out an apology and turned her now bright red face away from Cheryl’s hair, but the other girl’s closed eyes and pinched face didn’t even seem to acknowledge that anything had happened between them at all. 

Cheryl’s ankle was grotesquely swollen, showing an awfully ugly rainbow of black and blue. Some of her ankle bones were piercing through her skin and sticking out in a clockwise pattern, indicating which direction her foot had turned in when she fell. Claudette was quick to wipe away at any of the blood coming from the protruding bones by the time Bill finally entered the tent. 

“I’ve had to set many bones back in my day, but I’ve never done much of this with someone as little as you kid-”

The old soldier knelt down in front of Cheryl and examined her injured ankle for a moment, grumbling as Claudette snatched the lit cigarette from his mouth and put it out.

“So we’ll move it on your mark?” 

Claudette nodded at Bill’s question before glancing back up at Cheryl and Kate.

“I know you’re pretty tough Cheryl- but this is going to hurt _a lot_. Possibly the worst pain you’ve ever felt in your life.”

“With all due respect, I don’t think this is gonna top puking up a fully-grown demon-fetus through my esophagus.”

Kate let out several choked sounds as she struggled to find the words to react to what Cheryl had just said, the other two survivor’s mouths falling open.

“Cheryl, y-you didn’t actually…”

The injured girl open one of her eyes and actually _smiled._

“For the sake of getting this next part over with, let’s just say that I didn’t. You can all just write that one off as me being woozy and concussed-”

Kate really wanted to believe that part was true, as Cheryl did seem slightly out of it- and based on the way her body swayed back and forth in Kate’s arms, she wasn’t even sure if Cheryl would be sitting upright now if Kate wasn’t holding her. 

Yet with the knowledge that Cheryl had been through unspeakable horrors in her past combined with how unholy of a place she was from… Kate couldn’t bear the thought of a younger Cheryl going through something so-

No. Cheryl had to be joking, or just confused from her head injury. 

“Well alrighty then, whenever you’re ready Claudette-”

Everyone inside of the tent was thankful that Bill had broken the uncomfortable silence. Kate braced herself for what was about to happen as Claudette and Bill each placed their hands along Cheryl’s ankle-

“Now!”

Kate knew that she had to keep Cheryl still no matter what- but her heart still ached with guilt as she could feel the smaller girl writhe in agony against her grip, causing her grasp to tighten into an almost strangling hold. Cheryl’s hands clasped tightly over her mouth to try and muffle her loud whine that threatened to grow into a scream, her head sinking into Kate’s chest. 

And even through Cheryl’s pained sounds, Kate could still clearly hear the sickening crunch of the poor girl’s bones being twisted back into place.

The thought horrified her, but Kate couldn’t help but wonder if this was some kind of omen- that the first activity she got to do with her crush after realizing that she was definitely developing a crush on Cheryl was to put her through such utter torment.

But she wasn’t. Kate was holding her, comforting her as Claudette and Bill finally finished repositioning her ankle properly- Cheryl’s whines slowly subsiding into a few soft whimpers before fading into silence. Kate hoped that Cheryl’s pain was starting to subside, or at least dull with drowsiness as the smaller girl’s body started to sag into Kate’s now tender hold on her.

“Kate- I’m sorry if-”

It was amusing how quickly Cheryl’s slurred mumbles drifted into quiet the moment Kate placed a hand on the back of her head, slowly lowering her back down into a lying position. 

“Help me get her foot elevated now-“

Claudette murmured softly to Kate as she finished up wrapping Cheryl’s ankle in a large bandage, with makeshift wooden splints on either side to keep her ankle from turning. Kate looked around until she found a straw pillow that must have been made for this very purpose, helping Claudette gently lift Cheryl’s leg and moved the pillow under her ankle. 

“Well, that should hold her together until she gets pulled into her next trial- then she’ll get all healed up anyways.”

Kate watched as Claudette knelt down to clean her bloody rags in a bucket of water, acting as if she hadn’t even heard Bill speak at all. 

“I still don’t get why you even bother patching people up when The Entity always mends our wounds just to tear us apart with new ones-“

“I do it because you are all my friends, and it’s the right thing to do. That’s why you always come to help too Bill-“

Claudette didn’t even look up from her work as she replied plainly, but Kate couldn’t help but smile. Despite her apparent shyness and social challenges, Claudette was easily the most valued member amongst all of the survivors. 

If not for her knowledge and gifts, Kate admired the self-taught medic most for her heart. 

The hopeful songbird stayed at Cheryl’s bedside despite Claudette’s insistence that there was nothing more she could do to help. Kate no longer cared how strange it must have seemed- that there wasn’t anything else she felt like doing in that moment rather than sitting in darkened silence and watching the slow rise and fall of Cheryl’s chest.

It was a visual reminder that Cheryl was alive, and relatively okay. It was a comforting thought for Kate. 

She knew for a fact that Cheryl wasn’t actually asleep, as the look on her face was far too comfortable and serene. A sleeping Cheryl always seemed to have some sort of frown that would vary in depth based on the kind of nightmare she was having. 

Kate wanted to talk to her, to ask for some clarification on that earlier ‘joke’ she had made about her past. She wanted to know the truth of what other forms of fresh hell the young veteran of terror had to endure at Silent Hill. 

She wanted to know all of Cheryl’s pain, because there was nothing else in the world Kate wanted more than to help ease her of it. 

And if that simply couldn’t be done, Kate would at least help her bear it. 

But Claudette gave specific instructions that it was best if Cheryl didn’t try to talk or move around much, and Kate was going to honor that. 

She looked back over at Cheryl and smiled, and it was then that Kate realized containing her hopeless crush on the girl was going to be harder than she thought. 

Kate hadn’t even realized how long she had been sitting in the comfortable silence until a sliver of light finally streamed through from the tent’s flap being opened with a large head poking through the opening.

“Hey Kate, do you mind if I talk to you about something real quick?”

Glancing one last time at Cheryl, Kate nodded at Jeff’s soft voice as she started to stand up. Just as she was about to take her first step away she felt an ice cold hand reach out and take her own, causing Kate to involuntarily gasp and freeze in place.

“If you’re gonna head out now, take this with you. Jeff said you would need it, and I won’t take credit for him looking out for you-”

Kate finally worked up the courage to look back at stare at the sight of Cheryl holding her hand. She was thankful that the girl’s eyes were still closed so she couldn’t see the blush immediately return on Kate’s face, the soft but dopey smile Cheryl was giving threatened to make her cheeks grow even warmer. 

There was something small tucked into the palm of Cheryl’s hand, and Kate forced herself to let go of the other’s fingers and close her fist around the guitar pick, goosebumps trailing up her arm when Cheryl’s fingers lightly grazed Kate’s knuckle for a microsecond as they each pulled away. 

“Thank you-“ Kate’s murmur came out a little too quiet and mesmerized for her liking, so she quickly cleared her throat.

“You try and get some more rest now, okay?”

She didn’t like that her only reply from Cheryl was a light sigh, but Kate wasn’t going to press her about it while she was feeling so flustered- and even then Kate managed to steal one last glance over at Cheryl before she followed Jeff out of the tent and over by the campfire to talk.

“For the record, I didn’t say that you would _need_ a guitar pick, but I did think it would help.”

“It was very nice of you Jeff, thank you.”

Kate gave her older friend her signature warm smile, though she couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t just give Kate the guitar pick himself- how could he have known Cheryl would elicit such a reaction out of her?

“But there’s something I thought you should know Kate, and I think maybe you should sit down for this-”

Kate couldn’t help but raise a questioning eyebrow as she slowly lowered herself down onto a log to sit. She couldn’t help but feel unnerved by how apprehensive Jeff seemed, the laid back musician almost never appeared nervous in the time that Kate had known him. 

And whatever it was, the other survivors knew about it too as Kate now noticed there were unusually few numbers around the campfire- those that were around stayed on the opposite side of them to give some space. Jane was sitting closest to Kate but still directly across from her, glancing up every few moments as if she was readying herself for something.

“Is everything okay? Is there something you need my help with?”

“No, nothing like that- I just wanted to let you know that in our last trial… we were at Midwich elementary with The Clown.”

Everybody must have been preparing for Kate to have some kind of hysterical fit, but her silence seemed to be even more unsettling as her eyes flickered down towards the flames and remained mute. It wasn’t the concept itself that led to the horror slowly dawning on her face and keeping the air from moving in and out of her lungs, it was the conclusion that clicked in her head like the flipping of a switch. 

“So was he the one who hurt Cheryl?”

Masterfully trained in her vocals, Kate knew to keep her tone even and neutral. None of the blood curdling panic, unbridled rage, or even the guilty sting of helplessness could be detected in her voice. 

But Kate wasn’t careful enough, and she knew once her hardened gaze snapped up to meet Jeff’s she had given away all of those feelings and more with her eyes. 

The man practically _cowered_ under nothing but Kate’s stare alone. 

“I honestly have no idea- all I know was that she was perfectly fine physically the last time I saw her in the trial, but then something happened and we lost track of her- right before we all got killed.”

Kate initially thought about questioning Jeff on what exactly had ‘happened’ that caused his eyes to look so downcast, but she couldn’t bring herself to interrogate anyone who had just gotten killed during a trial- let alone killed by The Clown. 

“Did you all get momento mori-ed by him?”

It was actually Quentin, who responded from his safe distance behind Jeff at the campfire.

“Just Jeff and Feng, I got sacrificed on the hook. He was pretty angry with all of us after Cheryl tried to fight him all by herself and actually won-”

“She did _what?_ ”

Now Kate was ready for the hysterical fit, her sympathies completely out the window as she shot up to her feet and embraced the new tightening sensation in her fists and jaw. 

Before that very moment, there was a strong argument that Kate Denson didn’t have an aggressive bone in her body- but now the songwriter even surprised herself with how hard she was fighting the urge to grab Jeff by the collar and demand why _none of them_ thought to try and stop Cheryl from doing something so incredibly reckless and stupid and-

Kate hadn’t even realized she was advancing on Jeff and Quentin until Jane was already in between them, catching Kate’s raised arms into her own hands.

“I think the important piece that you blocked out there was that Cheryl fought The Clown and _won-_ ”

“But why would she do something like that in that in the first place?”

Kate’s anger was fading just as quickly as it possessed her, the singer’s voice faltering as she already knew the answer. 

“I don’t… I didn’t need her to _avenge_ me, what I needed was for her to stay safe-”

Her volume dropped down to a whisper that only Jane was close enough to hear, bordering on a desperate whimper.

“Well, that’ll just be one of the _many_ topics you need to bring up with her once you finally get around to telling her how you feel-”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Throughout Kate’s childhood and teenage career in stardom, there had only been one or two times at the most when it had happened. Kate would become too emotionally overwhelmed, and she would simply shut down like a machine. 

She had felt it happen involuntarily after she was murdered by The Clown at Midwich Elementary School.

But this time Kate had forced it upon herself, locking away all of her emotions in the blink of an eye as she snatched her hands away from Jane and immediately swiveled her body away from the campfire. 

“Tell Claudette or Jake to come find me if anything changes with Cheryl, I’m going out to the forest.”

Kate closed her eyes to focus on muting out all of the color from her voice as she spoke. She wasn’t angry or upset at any of them, she was just confused and overwhelmed and needed a guitar in her hands to help her remember how to feel. 

When she couldn’t find it by the hatch where she had left it, she assumed Zarina or Yui must have taken it back to their tent for her- which quickly became evident by the way she found it across each of their laps once Kate had entered through the flap of their shared tent. 

“Oh shi- I thought I heard you yelling out there. Can you go back to Cheryl or something and wait there for a bit while we finish up here?”

It was after Zarina’s question that Kate spotted the toolbox next to Yui on the couple’s bed, the other girl quickly closing it up and snatching the guitar from Zarina’s lap. 

“We didn’t have time to decorate it, but this will have to do-”

Yui handed the guitar off to Kate as the musician realized instantly what they had done to it. Just barely visible in the dim light was the pink strap of fabric that went from the base of the guitar’s neck all the way down to the bottom.

“I’ll build you a proper case when I can find enough materials, but for now this should make it easier for you to carry around-”

“It was entirely Yui’s idea-” Zarina chimed in, “She’ll take any chance she can to work on putting something together with her hands again-”

“Oh hush you-” Yui’s reprimand was soft and loving, but cut off quickly as Kate’s love for her friends broke through the walls she had just closed her feelings beneath- pulling the unsuspecting Yui into a fierce hug. 

“Thank you both so much, for being the sweetest roommates ever-”

Kate felt Yui’s arms move to return the hug back, followed by the sound of Zarina shuffling off the bed and joining the group hug as well.

“I really needed this-” 

Kate didn’t realize how true her own words were until she felt the wetness on her cheeks. She was unashamed at the fact she was crying in front of her closest friends, but still wiped them away along with the smudged makeup with her hand. 

“We know you’ve been through a lot of stress lately Kate, and we just wanted to remind you that we’ve got your back.”

“You’re a part of our family now- which means we will fight for you no matter what.”

“You guys stop, I’m already crying!”

Kate let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob, which definitely turned into a laugh when Yui and Zarina did the same. A cloth rag of some kind was tossed her way to wipe at her eyes again, along with Yui handing Kate her book and pen while she slung her new guitar over her shoulder. 

“I think I’m still gonna head out to the forest and work on setting this new girl up for a bit, maybe work a little on _Dance With Me_ if I don’t get pulled into a trial first-“

Kate gave the guitar on her shoulder a soft pat, feeling amused at how Zarina’s eyes widened and she overdramatically fumbled for her recorder to flip it on.

“So what was the name of your new song again Miss Denson?”

“Trying to get an exclusive now are we? Yes, the new song is called _Dance With Me._ ”

Kate placed her hands on her hips and gave her best interview voice for Zarina, feeling nostalgic in wanting to play along with her journalist friend. 

“Can you share what it was exactly that finally restored your songwriting inspiration?” 

The overwhelmed feeling pinged again at the back of Kate’s mind, but she didn’t give into it as Yui thankfully came to her rescue, wrapping her arms around Zarina’s waist from behind and throwing her onto their shared bed of hay.

“You should go Kate, I shall hold off this little vulture while you escape-“

Zarina’s helpless yelp rose into a playful laugh as Yui pinned her down with a grin, Kate rolling her eyes and smiling to herself as she exited the tent and made her way out into the night.

There was a particular spot that Kate wanted to go in the forest, a rather small clearing in the trees with a large rock in the middle that would make a perfect place for Kate to sit and play. 

Her warm glow of excitement could be felt all throughout her body the second her fingers touched the strings, her smile persisting as she glanced down at the guitar pick in between her fingers.

The pick’s orange color reminded her of Cheryl’s turtleneck. 

Tuning the guitar wasn’t easy as it was clearly very old, but no set of strings was too challenging for Kate’s expert fingers. She couldn’t help but feel like if she just closed her eyes and pretended, she could imagine herself back in her Pennsylvania forest- back at home. As if none of these nightmarish trials ever happened to her.

As if The Clown had never happened to her, and all of the violence, the pain, the watching helplessly as those she’d grown to love perish- or got themselves hurt. 

Kate stopped playing and sighed. She couldn’t pretend things were the same as they were before she was taken. She simply wasn’t the same person. 

And that was okay. 

Playing music again still brought her peace, of which she was thankful. The chords she had envisioned for _Dance With Me_ came with ease, Kate even letting out a laugh of triumph when she made it through the chorus for the first time.

For the first time in a long time, Kate found herself humming the tune of her new song lightly as she finalized her sketches in her book. 

Her smile didn’t fade when she spotted the trail of smoke heading for her out of the corner of her eye, but she did narrow her eyes and set her guitar down and away from her. 

“I’ll be back for you soon-“ Kate whispered to her guitar as she closed her eyes and waited for The Entity to take her once more. 

The first thing Kate heard once she was teleported into the trial was the unnerving circus music, but it only made her anxious for a moment as she remembered why it was worth enduring at the Crotus Prenn Asylum. 

But a visit with her favorite furry friend in The Entity’s Realm would have to wait, as she could already hear the cogs and whistles of somebody working on a generator nearby, and Kate wanted to help. 

The hopeful songbird weaved through the various brightly colored attractions in the grass as she followed the sound of the generator repairs, until she eventually found exactly who she’d been looking for knelt down in the grass with familiar blonde bangs hiding the expression on her face.

“Cheryl!”

The woman on the generator visibly jumped and had to grab the generator to prevent herself from falling back. Kate knelt down next to her and began to work on the generator slowly, distracting herself every time she couldn’t help but peer over at Cheryl- just to check and make sure she was really there and looking relatively healthy and uninjured. 

At first Kate didn’t think anything of it when Cheryl only glanced in her direction once and resumed her repairs in complete silence. She certainly wasn’t happy that Cheryl had gotten pulled into a trial so soon after getting injured during her last one, but Kate was also relieved that her ankle and concussion were now healed- and Kate could now look out for her in this trial as well.

Perhaps they could even figure out how to look out for each other. 

There was so much that Kate wanted to talk about with Cheryl, but for one of the first times in her life the celebrity was having difficulty finding the words to start a conversation with her. She was afraid of embarrassing her or making her uncomfortable if she tried to bring up anything that had happened between them back in Claudette’s tent.

There was also a good chance that Cheryl didn’t even remember anything that had happened back there anyways. 

They were just over halfway finished with the generator when the rhythmic pulsing sound of the killer’s radius slowly faded in towards them, Kate looking up as Cheryl immediately stopped her repairs to stand up and look around. 

“Get ready to move, I can take the killer away.”

Kate actually scoffed in surprise as she also stopped her repairs and stood up to face Cheryl.

“Excuse me? Cheryl, while that’s sweet of you I certainly don’t need-”

The beginnings of her argument fell on deaf ears as the terrifying heartbeat got louder, her own breath held with dread as she heard leather boots and the flourish of a long coat turn around the corner behind her.

Kate now knew exactly who the killer was- The Deathslinger. A cowboy who wielded a modified variant of a harpoon gun, and overall gave those who enjoyed the southern aesthetic like Kate a bad reputation. 

She’d faced The Deathslinger many times before, and was more than ready to turn around and duck to avoid his already aimed-down sights- 

But then Kate remembered with the flash of terror that Cheryl was standing behind her. 

The shot rang out before she had even finished turning, her flash of terror growing as the blur of white movement told Kate exactly what was happening before her vision could even fully make it out herself. 

Cheryl had climbed over the nearly repaired generator, leaping out in front of Kate to shield her from the incoming projectile. She heard the young veteran of terror growl out in both pain and rage as the grappling hook on the end of The Deathslinger’s rifle was sticking straight out of her chest- now gushing with blood. 

“Cheryl!”

The Deathslinger merely let out a laugh and began to pull the lever on the side of his rifle to reel her in, Cheryl clutching the cord on the other end to try and put as much resistance on the weakening chain as possible. The heels of her boots were feebly kicking up dirt as the poor girl was getting dragged closer and closer.

The sight of the other woman in utter peril ignited something within Kate, a fire bursting within her that harbored several strong emotions at once. Anger, worry- a third feeling Kate wouldn’t put into tangible words growing strongest of all inside of her.

Rushing behind Cheryl, Kate was able to reach over with ease and grasp at the cord that had shortened merely a single foot away from the bloody and rusting bayonet tipped barrel of the killer’s gun. The country singer knew she was in pretty decent physical shape and was relatively strong, especially if she was able to carry Cheryl with no issue at all-

Yet Kate even surprised herself when a single jerk from her fist caused the cord on the Deathslinger’s gun to snap completely, releasing Cheryl to fall back in Kate’s arms. 

“You should probably get ready to move, I can take the killer away-”

Kate knew this was definitely not the appropriate time to mock Cheryl’s own words as she whispered into the injured girl’s ear- but if it taught her a valuable lesson then she was happy to oblige.

She wasn’t happy in the slightest about leaving Cheryl on her own with such a gaping chest wound either- but Kate knew she would have to lead the killer away if there was any chance for Cheryl to get mended back up. 

Which was always preferable for Kate over a sacrifice. 

“If you wanted a dance with me cowboy, you’ve _certainly_ got my attention now.”


	9. Dancing With Our Hands Tied

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Just wanted to quickly mention beforehand that I am deeply sorry for the long wait since my last chapter. I know I said that my new schedule was going to have a new chapter up at least once a week, but I'm also trying my best not to get burnt out on writing while I juggle this story in between my various college assignments. This is a longer chapter, so I'm hoping that makes up for the long stretch of absence!
> 
> Just a quick disclaimer to go along however- I'm just gonna apologize right now for the way I decided to end this chapter. Always remember that this story as a whole will have a happy ending for both Cheryl and Kate and that will never change!

Cheryl tried her best to mend herself back up with whatever crude bandage scraps she had on hand, still trying to wrap her head around how Kate managed to save her.

She was still trying to wrap her head around most of her memories since her last trial, many of them disjointed- and frankly difficult for her to believe. 

Did she really reach out and take Kate’s hand in her own? 

Cheryl let out a long sigh and shambled her way to a decrepit wooden framework, kneeling down behind some broken boards to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. 

Her initial plan of keeping Kate Denson at a safe distance from herself had failed miserably, but in Cheryl’s defense that was entirely Kate’s fault. Why was it that Kate kept going out of her way to help her, even at the expense of her own safety? 

What was Kate trying to get out of all of this? It wasn’t as if Cheryl had anything to offer her, besides additional burden-

Yet Alessa had eluded that trying to keep Kate away would be a lost cause- though much of Alessa’s lectures from below the hatch were difficult for her to remember. Thinking about the exact way her voice sounded or how the younger Cheryl’s shoes would scrape on the ground when she let out little skips of excitement- it started to give Cheryl a headache, which she now knew was definitely _not_ a residual side effect of her concussion. 

But what Cheryl could remember with the most clarity was Alessa’s final warning. She even wondered if that was intentional, Alessa using her psychic powers of some kind to make sure the warning of utmost importance couldn’t leave Cheryl’s head- no matter how she wanted it to. 

She wasn’t afraid of being sacrificed. She knew it would hurt, and it would be awful- but if every other survivor had to go through it potentially hundreds of thousands of times in this realm, then so would Cheryl. 

_”Think of your soul- well our soul- as handicapped. I’m fairly certain none of your allies back at camp have had their souls ripped in half and reincarnated into new lifeforms multiple times over before- that kind of strain is traumatic on a whole other psychic playing field than what this Entity does to the souls of sacrificed survivors. Sacrificing our soul to The Entity is not only putting myself and little Cheryl here at risk of exposure- but it will reawaken all of that prior trauma I put us through. It will put you through an indescribable amount of pain that is a hundred times more visceral than anything a mortal soul is designed to experience-”_

_”It is far worse than mere physical turmoil, Heather. It is above the categorisation of physical, mental, or emotional agony. Mortals can’t inflict psychic pain for a reason- and while I am not sorry for the limits I had to test in order to make ourselves an exception to this rule, I am sorry that these unfortunate and painful consequences have now been passed down to you.”_

_”Just please Heather, don’t make me beg. Whatever happens during your trials, you cannot get sacrificed under any circumstances. You have to survive…”_

“Uhm, hi there-”

Cheryl was grateful for the voice that interrupted her memory of Alessa’s words. She glanced up and found herself meeting the hazel brown eyes of Laurie Strode- who was sheepishly approaching Cheryl with a green medkit clutched in her hands. 

“Are you okay? I was just wondering if you’d like me to patch you up, I just finished a generator on the other side of the chapel and I believe Kate’s still keeping The Deathslinger occupied- so unless you don’t want to, which is okay if you don’t want to-”

“Hey- it’s okay, I would appreciate the heal. I promise I don’t bite- at least not at my teammates.” 

Cheryl had never spoken much to Laurie, but she could easily tell the young woman was a bit of a worrywart. It reminded Cheryl of herself when she was slightly younger, just after barely escaping Silent Hill with her life. Constantly looking over her shoulder and irrationally expecting to be met with hostility at even the simplest of everyday interactions with others.

Cheryl’s struggle with her more anxiety-centered side effects was still very prevalent in her current life, but she found ways to conceal them and make them far less obvious than Laurie did. She tried to give the other girl a reassuring smile as she leaned forward and allowed Laurie to start wrapping bandages around her chest wound. 

Just as Laurie began to secure her wrapping in place with a safety pin, her hands twitched and she involuntarily gave Cheryl a sharp jab between the ribs- causing Cheryl to grimace in pain.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Cheryl-”

“It’s fine Laurie, really- missed skill checks happen all the time, it’s not a big deal.”

It really wasn’t a big deal to Cheryl, but she also felt sympathetic from how guilty Laurie seemed to appear over her mistake, as the medkit was now trembling in her hands as she attempted to close it.

“I know I seem like such a nervous wreck all of the time, but I promise it has nothing to do with you Cheryl.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if it did, I’ve got kind of reputation for bringing the worst to those around me-“

Cheryl normally didn’t like outright sharing those darker thoughts about herself aloud, but there was something about Laurie that made Cheryl wonder if the other woman could relate. 

“I know exactly what you mean Cheryl, but you don’t have to worry about that so much here- and that says a lot coming from me.”

Laurie let out a slight chuckle at her own admission as she beckoned Cheryl to follow her, in search of the nearest generator. 

“I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, due to who I am- I get the feeling that’s something you and I have in common?”

Cheryl nodded her head, genuinely surprised at the feeling of release she suddenly felt. It might have just been the ache in her chest from her injury- or it was the feeling of alleviation from being able to relate to another about her deepest trauma. 

She couldn’t ever exactly talk to a therapist about the things she went through at Silent Hill- any mental health professional who heard Cheryl’s story of demon-worshipping cults and monsters from another world hunting her down would probably assume the worst and lock her away in some hospital. 

Yet the ironic part was that Cheryl wouldn’t even blame them. Sometimes she still wondered herself if there was still a part of her mind lost within the blood-soaked floors of that wretched place. 

“You don’t have to be afraid of letting people in Cheryl, at least not here. Everyone else is being hunted by murderous killers regardless, so there’s nothing to be guilty about- in theory.”

Laurie stopped walking and looked back over at Cheryl with an unreadable expression on her face.

“The guilt that follows whenever I see Michael kill another one of my friends never really seems to go away-”

Laurie’s entire demeanor had changed, completely unnerving Cheryl to a point where she would have taken a step back if she hadn’t already been so seasoned with the feeling of terror. Laurie’s voice had dropped into a register far lower, and much more bitter. 

“Michael is my brother, but you probably know him better as The Shape.”

Cheryl was smart enough to lower her head and allow her bangs to conceal the shock that would have otherwise been clearly visible on her face. She had gone up against The Shape before, he was easily one of the deadliest killers in the entire Realm if every survivor wasn’t careful enough. Just the thought of him watching her from a distance made her insides twist in a painful memory. 

He was Laurie Strode’s _brother?_

Yet what ended up shocking Cheryl the most was the small smile that actually played across Laurie’s face.

“Thank you for knowing better than to say that you’re sorry, we both know this burden isn’t something that can be cured by pity.”

Now it was Cheryl’s turn to meet the other’s eyes and smile, her own coming from the admiration of just how intelligent of a person she was finding Laurie to be. 

“It’s a little messed up that this is what we find ourselves bonding over, don’t you think?”

Cheryl’s admission elicited a laugh out of Laurie, which was followed by her own softer chuckle joining in- yet the deeper torment behind each girl’s reprieve could still be heard by those who knew to listen for it. 

“If definitely is- but I think it’s why people like us do better on our own than with others. We know the risks. We just have to make sure that those we let in know the risks as well.”

They had resumed walking again and stopped next to a generator near the very edge of the chapel grounds, surrounded by various wooden rubble near a looming exit gate. 

“I completely agree with you Laurie, but I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to imply-”

Laurie had already started working on the generator’s repairs when she glanced up at Cheryl, still standing and watching the other curiously. 

“I know it’s not as easy for you to realize yourself, but Kate has quite the thing for you. It’s as clear as day, and all of us can see it. I know it’s not my place to lecture you since I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through-”

She could see the nervousness seep back into Laurie as she averted Cheryl’s glare, her anxious hands trembling once more while they continued to connect the generator’s wires together. 

Cheryl herself had no idea how to feel about what Laurie had just said, merely staring at the girl in front of her with her mouth agape. 

“-but I do know that if there’s any part of you that feels the same way about Kate, then you have to let her know what she’s getting into. For both her sake and yours.”

Cheryl’s attempt to lower down into a kneel at the generator now felt more like a stumble, as the implications behind Laurie’s words made her limbs feel like rubber. She needed to hold onto the levers lining the generator’s sides to steady herself. 

She remembered now. 

“Al said the exact same thing-”

Cheryl’s whisper was so quiet that she knew Laurie couldn’t hear her- It was all starting to feel like too much.

She cared a lot about Kate, how could she not? How could anybody endure one of her warm smiles or watch the way her eyes lit up when she spoke about her passions and _not_ experience the overwhelming desire to protect someone so kind from all of the world’s cruelties?

If Kate really did have a _thing_ for Cheryl, then of course she felt the same way about Kate. Yet it was more than just a part of her that felt that way- it was all of her, and it was more than she was allowing herself to feel. The pain of watching those she cared about suffer was the only kind of pain that truly terrified her anymore. 

And Cheryl had learned all too well back in her hometown. It wasn’t pain that changed people- it was the fear of pain. The young veteran of terror had been so sure she’d found a way to overcome all of that fear, right up until Kate Denson decided to enter her life and catch her every time Cheryl ever managed to stumble and fall- 

There was still blood on her hands from when she tried to mend her own wound, but she hadn’t even realized it until the sound of Kate’s scream echoing throughout the grounds. The sound had Cheryl clutching a hand to her chest- a sticky red handprint leaving a stain on her white vest, directly over her heart. 

The sound was coming from far away, but somehow Cheryl could pinpoint exactly where it came from. Her eyes locked onto a flaming gold aura in the perfect shape of Kate’s body, clutching her side and stumbling through a window. 

“Is Kate the Obsession this trial?”

Cheryl only tore her eyes away from Kate’s aura for an instant to glance at Laurie, who merely shrugged and nodded. 

There was always one survivor in every trial who became the killer’s ‘Obsession’. Usually it was random, but sometimes there were preferences for who the killer liked to obsess over- such as Kate and The Clown. 

Depending on the unique abilities of each killer and how they treated their Obsession during the trial, there was something about the killer’s desire to target and hunt down a specific someone that would sometimes enhance their abilities. 

So why did Cheryl herself suddenly have an enhanced ability towards the Obsession? 

It didn’t matter to her at the moment anyhow, Kate was hurt and it had awoken something latent within Cheryl- she needed to go find and help Kate. 

Cheryl didn’t even bother looking back at Laurie as the other girl passed over her medkit from the other side of the generator. She merely murmured out a quick word of thanks before she took off in the direction of the chapel. Cheryl could see that Kate’s rhythm was off now that she was injured, her aura scrambling up the stairs of the chapel and leaning against a railing. 

Cheryl herself made it to the entrance of the chapel and readied herself to become a distraction, already looking for ways she could vault and lead the killer away once she got his attention. 

But miraculously, the aura of a completed generator rang out from the direction Cheryl had arrived in, quickly moving to duck behind a burning stack of wooden rubble and hoping she wouldn’t be seen by The Deathslinger as he sauntered off through the opening Cheryl had been standing in moments prior. 

It had been years since Cheryl had set foot in any place of worship- and yet even in a place like this she hadn’t expected to feel so uneasy as she made her way through the destroyed and abandoned chapel. 

She found Kate at the top of the first flight of stairs, sitting down and leaning back against the wall. Despite the angry gash in her side that was gushing blood, nothing seemed strong enough to dull the warm smile that could mend even a soul as broken as Cheryl’s the very instant they made eye contact. 

When they had first met, Cheryl found those deep blue eyes to be overwhelming- sometimes she still did. But now they never failed to bring even a small smile to her face. 

“How did you find me so quickly?”

Cheryl ignored Kate’s question, more concerned with the weariness in her voice as she raced up the steps and knelt down in front of her. Her hands moved with an enhanced speed and precision she didn’t even know she had- while also managing not to get distracted by Kate’s abs this time as she wrapped up the singer’s wound with the last of the medkit.

“Are you okay?”

Cheryl closed up the empty medkit and pushed it aside, noticing through her peripheral vision the way Kate’s concerned gaze was locked on the bloody handprint on her chest.

“I feel like I should be asking you that question, you’re the one who took a hit from The Deathslinger after distracting him for at least two generators worth of time.”

Kate cocked head slightly to the side and smiled. As much as Cheryl loved Kate’s smile, there was something about this smile that made her question if it was as genuine as her smile just moments prior- and then Cheryl finally noticed it. 

It was almost impossible for anyone to tell if they didn’t study her face as closely as Cheryl did, but there was a slight crinkle around Kate’s eyes that just faintly diluted the warmth they usually brought to anyone captured in her gaze. It finally struck her, that was what Kate did whenever she was faking a smile. 

Which in turn, made Cheryl feel guilty.

“You’re really, really good at running and distracting the killer Kate- and I’m sorry if my recklessness leads you to believe I don’t believe that about you-”

Opening up about herself in any way that could make her feel vulnerable usually made Cheryl nervous- but not with Kate. Not when it was something that she needed to hear, something that could help her.

Cheryl gestured to the freshly bandaged wound at Kate’s side. “The truth is, I really don’t like seeing you get hurt like this. That’s why even though I _know_ you’re good at maneuvering the killer, I’d rather put myself in harm’s way because it hurts me more to see you get hurt rather than take a beating from the killer myself.”

The way Kate’s entire expression seemed to soften reminded Cheryl of when they were alone back in that tent, after she had been killed by The Clown. Kate wasn’t the type of person to shy away from her emotional expression, but there was a rare sight of true openness and rawness that Cheryl got to see in her, an exposure that she could only describe as pure trust.

Kate trusted Cheryl, completely and openly. The thought would have comforted and emboldened her if it weren’t for the cold fire laced in the singer’s next words.

“Has it ever even crossed your mind Cheryl, that maybe _I_ might not like seeing _you_ put yourself in danger and get hurt as well?”

Cheryl was completely stunned, because the thought genuinely _hadn’t_ ever crossed her mind before- then she remembered what Laurie had told her. She knew Kate always cared enough to make sure all of the other survivors were safe and comfortable, but now it was finally starting to dawn on Cheryl that Kate might actually feel the same way towards her that she felt towards Kate.

“I- well I’m sorry, but you have to understand that I’m already used to getting hurt and beaten down in places like this, from my time at Silent Hill-”

“And that’s somehow supposed to make me feel _better?_ ”

The softness in her face was still there, but now she looked more upset than trusting. Kate looked more hurt in that very moment than when she had been speared by The Deathslinger just before, and that hurt was no one else’s fault but Cheryl’s.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know what you mean-”

Cheryl reached out her hands, not even seeking to make contact with Kate at all but hoping the visual attempt could provide something of comfort, which was completely knocked down by a single sweep of Kate’s own arm.

“I _know_ how trauma works Cheryl. You think being in danger is easy for you because you’ve done it before, but you’re only pushing away the deeper issues that come from being haunted by your past-”

Kate’s voice suddenly dropped incredibly low in volume, almost to a whisper. Whether it was due to her own emotions or if it was to avoid being heard by the killer Cheryl couldn’t tell. 

“-and if you keep pretending that trauma doesn’t exist whenever it’s convenient for you, it’s only going to hurt worse when it finally catches up to you. I know you told me before that you’re trying to get better, but I can’t-”

Kate struggled to get back onto her feet, Cheryl instantly moving to help pull her up by her arm with one hand and another on Kate’s back. The distraught songbird seemed to use this as an opportunity to place both of her own hands on Cheryl’s arms, holding the smaller girl in place and rendering her unable to avoid the wave of emotion that radiated off of Kate and struck Cheryl with full force.

“I _won’t_ watch you burn from the inside out.”

Kate’s words struck something deep within Cheryl, and there was nothing she could do to suppress her gasp. It felt like a dark shade parting above a small plant, finally exposed to sunlight again after so long. Cheryl couldn’t tell if this feeling was truly her own, or if she was feeling it from Alessa- or she was feeling it for them both. 

Kate released her arms the instant The Deathslinger’s terror radius started to grow closer once again, a unique heartbeat sound that still pounded a fear into Cheryl’s aching chest every time she heard it. Both girls quickly separated and looked around, trying to figure out what direction he was coming from. Cheryl watched as Kate quietly raced up the second flight of stairs and peered through the colorful stained-glass window. 

Cheryl slowly followed her up the steps and scanned around the second floor of the chapel. There weren’t any vault locations to make a quick escape- she wondered if they could try breaking through a window?

“He’s coming up from the stairs on the other side of the building- we’ll have to hide.”

Before Cheryl could even process what was happening, Kate was holding her wrist and guiding her along the second-floor’s balcony. The smaller girl couldn’t figure out where Kate’s focus seemed to be zeroed on until she stopped at a single red locker and started pulling it open.

“That locker’s only big enough for one of us- _Kate!_ ”

Cheryl’s yelp of surprise came out louder than she had intended- most of her shock coming from the way the country singer effortlessly pulled Cheryl’s body into hers and closed the locker behind them. The two of them stuffed into the same locker was definitely a tight fit, and Cheryl didn’t have the painful daze of a concussion anymore to write away the memory of Kate’s arms around her waist and upper back- her featherlight touch even grazing the back of Cheryl’s head and causing her eyes to involuntarily flutter shut. 

“I’m really sorry- are you uncomfortable right now?”

Cheryl had no idea how to coherently form words to answer Kate’s question, not with the singer’s mouth so close that her barely audible breath created a whisper so soft in Cheryl’s ear she had to bite her own tongue to hold back a shudder. 

As she tried her best to shake her head, Cheryl felt her hair gently brushing against Kate’s shoulder, neck and face- forcing herself to whisper back once she realized that she wasn’t the only one with a blushing warmth radiating off of her cheeks.

“It’s okay Kate, I trust you.”

Cheryl made sure to move her head back slightly and tilt her face up so that she could try and look the other woman in the eyes during her own admission. There were small shreds of light streaming through the slits in the locker’s wood, which Cheryl was endlessly thankful for as she got to drink in the sight of a completely awestruck Kate Denson.

“Really?”

The adorable wonderment in Kate’s voice couldn’t help but force a wide smile out of Cheryl. She truly meant it as well, she had expected the feeling of completely handing over herself to someone else to be terrifying- but this was both exhilarating and endlessly comforting at the same time. 

Cheryl no longer felt scared by how quickly and deeply she was starting to care about Kate- because Kate made her feel like there was nothing to fear about it.

“Really. After this trial, I’ll tell you everything. About Silent Hill, my dad and Alessa, and all of the other rough patches in my past.”

She could hear Kate suck in a sharp breath, the slightest movement causing her golden brown hair to fall in her face. 

“Are you sure? It’s not that I don’t want to know about you or your past, but you don’t have to tell me anything that’s too hard or uncomfortable to talk about if you don’t want to-”

“I want to.”

Cheryl felt herself reaching up to brush the stray strands of hair out of Kate’s face, slowly tucking it behind the taller girl’s ear. She decided to keep her hand there, her finger’s barely reaching the back of Kate’s neck with her palm softly resting on her jawline. 

“You showed me your demons, now I want to show you mine. That way we can learn how to look out for each other, together. How does that sound?”

Cheryl was thankful she had finished her question before she felt Kate’s hand on the back of her head move deeper into her hair, completely dissolving the resistance that held back a shaking breath finally leaving her lungs. 

“I think that sounds amazing-”

Somehow Cheryl found herself even more submerged in everything Kate Denson as she watched the way those deep blue eyes eventually slipped closed, the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg lulling Cheryl’s own eyes to shut once again as the distance between their faces grew smaller and smaller. 

Cheryl couldn’t pay attention to anything else beyond the feeling of Kate’s small-rounded nose brushing past her own and the sound of her own pounding heartbeat as her lips were less than a centimeter away from Kate’s- 

Wait, her heartbeat- 

Cheryl’s head would have knocked violently against Kate’s if the taller girl hadn’t pulled her head back first, clearly sensing the danger far before she had as Kate attempted to tighten her hold around the smaller woman protectively- before she was brutally ripped from the songwriter’s arms.

Cheryl’s own startled cry came out strangled as the little air that had been left in her lungs was crushed out of her from The Deathslinger’s grasp. Kate was screaming out something that sounded like Cheryl’s name, but she couldn’t quite hear it clearly over the ringing in her ears from getting thrown back over the killer’s shoulder while trying her best to suck in whatever air she could back into her chest. 

One breath was all she needed to regain her senses, kicking and clawing at whatever portions of The Deathslinger’s body she could get her hands on. 

Cheryl wasn’t quite as good at fighting her way out of the killer’s grasp as Kate was, and soon enough she felt her body uprighted again to only be met with the searing pain of a sharp and rusting hook getting driven through her shoulder. 

The Deathslinger glared down at Cheryl and laughed, muttering something under his breath that she could almost make out as he turned and started to walk away with a flourish of his jacket- something about “telling Kenny about this-” 

She didn’t really care to ponder much about what he meant. Physically, she was on a hook just outside of the chapel on the grounds of the Crotus Prenn Asylum. Mentally, Cheryl was still trying to process the fact that she had nearly kissed Kate Denson inside of a locker in the middle of a trial. 

Emotionally, she was completely all over the place- because _Kate Denson had nearly kissed her inside of a locker in the middle of a trial-_.

“You are the first survivor I have ever encountered to actually look happy while hanging on a hook.”

Cheryl blinked down at the confused face of Adam Francis. She had been in a couple of trials with the professor before, but she still didn’t know him very well. Regardless, Cheryl was always grateful to anybody who helped her off of the hook- muttering out a word of thanks while he began to dress her shoulder wound. 

“I created a diversion to distract The Deathslinger back at the chapel, but it was merely just myself tossing a pebble through a window- so I don’t quite know how much time we have.”

The young veteran of terror nodded silently, hoping that Kate managed to get out of the chapel safely before Adam’s diversion directed him back there- her hope growing into confidence as she finally spotted a brilliant gold aura far off to her right. Cheryl didn’t know how, but she knew this new ability of hers could help her spot the aura of the Obsession no matter where they were whenever either of them were injured. 

The Obsession could presumably see her aura as well, as Kate’s aura was moving quickly in her direction. The aura unfortunately faded from Cheryl’s sight the second Adam finished bandaging up her shoulder, but by then she could hear the footsteps of Kate’s boots growing ever closer. 

“Laurie and I were working on the second generator at the carnival when he spotted us-”

Kate paused to catch her breath, clearly winded from how fast she had been moving to make her way over to them. Cheryl even noticed the way her muscles relaxed and alleviated much of their apparent tension the second she came to a halt, standing so close to Cheryl that their shoulders were practically touching- not that she seemed to mind Kate’s closeness much anymore. 

“Laurie took him away, she told me to come find you guys-”

There were so many little things about Kate that Cheryl had noticed before, but didn’t allow herself to fully appreciate until now. One example was how Kate hadn’t yet finished catching her breath but still sputtered the rest of her words out anyways, because helping her team out with information took a higher priority to her. 

Hoping that she wasn’t overstepping, Cheryl reached out and softly placed a hand on Kate’s upper back to help ground her. Thankfully Kate responded by smiling over at her gratefully, and in that moment Cheryl regretted any and all prior attempts she had made in the past to push Kate away. 

“Alright, then we should head back over to that generator and see if we can finish it-”

Adam’s declaration was cut off by a rather high-pitched scream, one that they all recognized as Laurie’s. 

“Wow, she led him all the way to the other side of the chapel- impressive. I will go help her, you two look out for each other and finish repairing the two generators back at the carnival.”

It was the exact wording of Adam’s orders that elicited a smile from Cheryl as she nodded along, even giving her the courage to exchange a brief but heartfelt glance from Kate. She honestly couldn’t tell if Adam could notice what was happening between the two of them, but he didn’t make it known if he did as he merely smiled back and nodded at each of them before disappearing behind a wall of burnt wood and heading off in the direction of the chapel. 

As soon as they were alone, Kate immediately extended her hand out to Cheryl and dropped her voice back down to a soft murmur, though not quite as quiet as it was from before in the locker.

“May I?”

Cheryl held back her own eye roll at Kate’s sudden politeness, because what else should she have expected from Kate Denson?

She still found it incredibly cute and endearing as she nodded softly and took the musician’s offered hand, admittedly enjoying the feeling of being gently led around every pile of burnt rubble and dead tree by Kate’s tender but confident sense of direction.

The carnival wasn’t very far from where Cheryl was hooked, yet she found herself kind of surprised that Kate seemed excited to take her here. She had assumed that due to her coulrophobia, Kate wouldn’t be a big fan of carnival attractions. Cheryl certainly didn’t like them herself, and her aversion of carnivals only came from a specific memory of hers involving a certain carousel and a nauseating cartoon rabbit. 

“No, we should at least do one generator first-”

Cheryl found herself straining to catch the words in what was Kate’s low mumbling to herself, the songwriter’s free hand holding her chin with her eyebrows knit together in thought- before guiding the smaller girl over towards a generator just behind a stack of hay bales that bordered the carnival area.

All of these were just more little things about Kate that Cheryl couldn’t help but pick up on, and finally allowed herself to acknowledge just how cute she thought they each and all were. 

Another prime example was the way Kate waited until the last possible second to let go of Cheryl’s hand and start working on repairing the generator. 

Unlike during their first generator this trial, the silence between the two women wasn’t awkward at all despite Cheryl hoping that wouldn’t change with what she was about to say next. She just wanted to make sure they were on the same page with one another, as she assumed that was a part of their semi-unspoken promise to now ‘look out for each other’.

“So- we’re also gonna talk about what happened back there after this trial, right?”

Kate’s fingers must have fumbled in whatever wires she had been connecting together next to Cheryl, as a shower of sparks suddenly flew in her face. 

“You mean back there in the locker, right?”

Cheryl nodded, noticing a brief flash of fear on the other’s blushing face for a split second before it quickly changed into a fake smile that made Cheryl’s heart drop like a stone. 

“Hey, if you don’t wanna talk about it then we don’t have to, we can just pretend it never happened and-“

“No no, wait a second-“

Kate messed up again on her repairs, covering her face with her arm as more sparks flew up at her in a huff of frustration. 

“Don’t misunderstand me Cheryl, I thought what happened back there was really, really nice- minus the part where we got interrupted at the very end, something I’ll be sure to correct myself later-“

The way Kate glanced over to meet Cheryl’s gaze with darkened eyes sent a pleasant chill up her spine, forcing the smaller girl to look back down at her hands on the generator in order to avoid falling under Kate’s wonderous spell once more. 

“I’m just worried about things that simply shouldn’t matter right now. Things _outside_ of this Realm that unfortunately have too much power over my life and career-“

That was all Kate needed to say for Cheryl to figure out what she meant. 

She had been aware for awhile that she was developing feelings for a celebrity- a pretty well known one at that- but it wasn’t something Cheryl actively noticed much whenever she was with Kate. In the Entity’s Realm, she didn’t seem like the Kate Denson from all of the magazine covers, sold-out concerts, and television commercials trying to sell sneakers-

She was just Kate. 

“But I can cross that bridge when I get to it, right now I just want to focus on the things that I like instead-“

Cheryl was waiting for her to elaborate, but instead was met with nothing but silence. She tilted her head back up at Kate in confusion, only to realize that Kate had been pointedly staring at Cheryl herself the entire time. 

Her hands fumbled with the wrong lever on the generator, sending an explosion of sparks all over the smaller girl as she witnessed Kate openly giggling at the sight. 

“You okay there Cheryl?”

She nodded in response, narrowing her eyes in pretend annoyance.

“We’ve blown three skill checks now, we seem to have a habit of distracting each other.”

A coy smile played across Kate’s face as she raised an eyebrow. “Would you like me to leave and go repair the other generator nearby?”

“No-“

Cheryl wasn’t embarrassed at all by how quickly she responded, only because it caused another warm laugh from her- well she wasn’t sure _what exactly_ her and Kate were to each other yet.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to stay focused on the generator then-“

All of the teasing and playful tones in Kate’s voice felt a little different to Cheryl now, specifically when they were directed at her. It wasn’t that their new understanding of each other changed the way she felt about Kate, it just made her feel even better now- 

-and that concept itself was an entirely new feeling for Cheryl.

All it took was a peaceful minute of silence between the two to have the generator finished and lighting up, causing Cheryl to look around cautiously. Between all of the missed skill checks and commotion they were causing, she was sure The Deathslinger would have noticed where they were by now. 

Her caution evaporated when Kate’s hand came back into her view, extended in a silent offering to help her stand. Cheryl took it automatically, yet was still somehow pleasantly surprised when Kate’s gentle hold persisted as she led the young veteran of terror away-

Away from the other generator that they needed to repair.

“Uh, the generator we need to finish is that way-”

Cheryl attempted to gesture in the right direction with her other hand, past the colorful neon lights of the various carnival attractions and off at a nearby tree- but all Kate needed to do was a single soft tug of the other’s arm to silence her protests as they rounded the corner behind one of the many carnival tents.

Cheryl opened her mouth to begin another argument- if Kate was trying to do what Cheryl thought she was trying to do, then clearly they weren’t on the same page when she had assumed they would wait until after the trial to finish what they had started earlier in the locker.

But the argument died in her throat the second her hand was dropped and she caught sight of what Kate was clearly very eager to show her, judging by the way the singer was practically bouncing on her toes in excitement.

“Maurice, this is Cheryl. Cheryl, meet my friend Maurice!”

Maurice was a creature Cheryl could only assume was a horse. It didn’t look like a very friendly horse from what she could tell, with half of its body looking burnt and decayed and- was that _blood_ dripping out of its mouth?

“ _He_ is the only reason why I enjoy coming to this part of the Realm. I’ve tried everything I could think of to break his chains loose and get him moving, but The Entity always keeps him tied down.”

Cheryl noticed Kate frowning at her words. It wasn’t that Cheryl had a particular aversion to horses, but she clearly wasn’t quite as interested in them as Kate seemed to be. She didn’t quite understand it, but any apprehension she might have had towards Maurice seemed to die down as Cheryl watched Kate eagerly reach out and stroke the horse’s neck.

“Maurice loves it when I pet him- clearly his current owner doesn’t do a very good job at giving him the attention a good boy like Maurice deserves-”

Kate’s passive aggression was masked by her adoring smile, which finally prompted Cheryl to hesitantly reach out and slowly pet the top of the horse’s head. The disturbing third eye on the horse’s forehead seemed to slip closed as Maurice let out a huff of hair- and let out many droplets of the blood stained around his mouth that landed all over Cheryl’s once distinctively white vest. 

“That means he likes you!”

Kate seemed so pleased by her declaration that Cheryl couldn’t help but smile back. Their visit to the horse was brief however, as there was still a nearby generator needing to be done. She watched as the songbird finally leaned in and whispered something into Maurice’s ear that Cheryl couldn’t hear, followed by a quick kiss on the top of his head. She did however hear Kate murmuring a soft goodbye to the strange-looking horse as Cheryl was the first to step away and lead them both back towards the generator they had started at the very beginning of the trial. 

Their visit with Maurice had presumably given Kate the opportunity to start telling Cheryl all about the different horses she owned and visited on her favorite ranch back home in Pennsylvania. It was easier for both of them to stay focused on repairing the generator with Kate’s joyful ramblings on the things she loved and missed back home while Cheryl listened and connected wires together in her pleasant silence.

Kate sounded so happy when she talked about these individual pieces of her old life, it almost made Cheryl wish she had tried to learn more about her before they had met here in The Entity’s Realm- though admittedly she wasn’t sure if she would have appreciated just how beautiful of a person Kate really was before that very first meeting when Cheryl had stumbled into camp.

“...and then the final horse is this little cranky girl that my Mom wanted to get rid of at first, but I insisted we keep her. I feel like she would probably be your favorite, her name is Heather and I really think you two would hit it off-”

Cheryl visibly startled at the mention of her former name, but she was thankful that Kate didn’t seem to notice as their generator finally lit up with a chime- which was shortly followed by another generator chiming up from the chapel as the exit gates lit with a white aura that both girls could see from either side of the map.

“That was fast- Adam and Laurie must have been working on the generator in the chapel. I wonder where the killer’s been-”

Kate’s question was answered by the sound of The Deathslinger’s approaching terror radius, both of them tensing at the sound. The closest exit gate was still quite a distance away from them, all the way back near the killer shack where Cheryl had formerly helped Laurie in repairing a generator earlier in the trial. 

Cheryl bolted right to her feet and grasped Kate’s hand without even thinking, locking their fingers together as they took off running in the direction of the killer shack. Despite her initially taking the lead, Kate admittedly had slightly more athleticism than other girl did- not to mention longer legs as she started moving just a couple of steps ahead of Cheryl while making sure to keep their fingers locked. 

A shot rang out, followed by an explosion of pain that sent Cheryl toppling to the ground hard and clutching her leg, letting go of Kate.

She must have let go of Kate’s hand a little too late as the other woman stumbled off her balance and fell to her knees. She shot back up to her feet almost immediately, but still wasn’t fast enough in reaching out to try and grab onto Cheryl before she was reeled back in the direction of The Deathslinger’s weapon.

The killer laughed and made his way closer to Cheryl while he reeled her in, making it quicker for him to slam the end of his bayonet down and spear it straight through her stomach and into the dirt beneath her.

Her scream of pain was muffled slightly through her own gritted teeth, hitting a new higher pitch when The Deathslinger thrusted the blood-soaked blade out of her with her back arching slightly with the movement. 

Cheryl’s eyes were squeezed shut as she weakly attempted to place pressure on the wound, waiting for The Deathslinger to pick her up and carry her to a hook- only the moment never came.

She slowly opened her eyes to see Kate standing over her, arms outstretched as the larger figure of The Deathslinger was sent stumbling back towards the chapel. 

Did she- did Kate try _shoving_ The Deathslinger away from her?

“Not sure how to break this to you cowboy, but she’s _taken_.”

Cheryl had never heard Kate’s voice sound so venomous, which she would have been touched by if the musician wasn’t leading the killer back into the chapel and away from where she was bleeding out. 

She knew the internal bleeding must have been pretty bad, but Cheryl still tried her best not to let the shock immobilize her as she turned herself over onto her stomach with a whimper and began to crawl through the grass on her hands and knees towards the exit gate. 

The sound was faint, but Cheryl could have sworn she heard the blaring alarms that sounded off whenever the exit gates were opened. She reached a section of wood sticking up from the ground, clawing at it in an attempt to pull herself closer to her destination. 

“I won’t let you bleed out today Cheryl-”

Soft hands were grabbing at each of Cheryl’s arms and began to pull her the rest of the way to the gate, recognizing the blue jeans and shirt of Laurie Strode as the doors behind her were already opened. 

Laurie stopped suddenly as an even sharper sound echoed in the distance, Cheryl hissing in pain as she recognized the sound and attempted to pull herself into a sitting position- to which Laurie was quick to gently push her back down. 

“Hey, easy there. Adam’s opening the other exit gate and he’ll make sure Kate gets out safely-”

Cheryl shook her head and pointed to the injured golden aura getting thrown through a large stained-glass window in the distance. Laurie couldn’t see it- but Cheryl watched as Kate hit the ground and rolled back into a sprint before she was shot through the left shoulder, ending her chase with The Deathslinger as she was reeled in and speared across her back.

She hated feeling so helpless- Kate was hurt and getting picked up to be hooked, and all Cheryl could do was lie there and fight her overwhelming nausea while suppressing the urge to vomit from the disturbingly familiar sensation of blood pooling within her stomach.

“Please, I know this is a lot to ask, but could you-?”

Cheryl kept her hand pointed and outstretched, her other gesturing in weak desperation towards where she saw Kate’s aura go down. She wasn’t bothering to try and cover her wound anymore, her efforts to stop the steady flow of blood were futile. 

Laurie sighed and shook her head. “Fine, I’ll go and see to it that she makes it out safe and in once piece-”

Cheryl didn’t have the strength left to thank her while Laurie already started jogging off in the direction of the other exit gate before calling back out to her.

“You better start crawling, we’ll meet you on the other side!”

Cheryl nodded, knowing Laurie couldn’t hear her at this point as she let out a soft murmur to mostly herself.

“My Dad taught me never to keep a lady waiting-”

Yet her stubbornness refused to begin her crawl towards the threshold of the exit gate until she saw Kate’s golden aura being lifted away safely from the hook. While her condition was pretty serious, she felt fine enough to wait behind until she was sure Kate made it out of the trial safely before she thought about crossing over herself. She was more than relieved as she watched Kate’s aura run straight for the other exit gate and leave without any form of resistance or struggle- it did make Cheryl very suspicious. 

If The Deathslinger wasn’t on the other end of the grounds trying to stop those three from escaping, then where was he?

The answer filled Cheryl with dread as the sound of the killer’s terror radius returned, the rush of adrenaline that followed sent her scrambling back on her hands and knees towards salvation, her own sticky red blood making the ground slick and difficult for her limbs to gain proper traction-

“Just you huh? Ah’ guess ye’ really are _taken_ now-”

Cheryl’s blood froze with panic as the voice of The Deathslinger grumbled out from directly over her.

No- she didn’t want to be sacrificed. She was so close- she didn’t want to keep Kate waiting-

Cheryl growled out in pain as she was lifted into the air with rough hands, using the final shred of her strength to kick as hard as she could at any part of the killer she could make contact with. 

The Deathslinger merely laughed as he threw Cheryl straight onto a hook- the realization of what was about to happen to her finally sinking in. 

“I’m so sorry-”

She was barely able to choke out her final words as The Entity’s materializing black claws swung down to pierce through Cheryl’s insides in a clean and flawless motion. 

It felt as if she was entirely on fire- like her whole being was scorched alive from a flame so hot Cheryl felt like she could feel her physical body itself getting reduced to ash, and then she was drifting towards something-

_”This is bad- this is very, very bad. I knew you’d slip and get yourself sacrificed eventually- but you couldn’t even make it through one trial after my warning?”_

_”Heather, please listen to me very carefully. You need to calm down. Everything’s going to be okay, please just focus on trying to calm down. There has to be some way I can make this easier for you- hold on, let me see if there’s anything I can do-”_

_”Damn… okay. I’m really sorry about this Heather, but I need to focus on masking myself and little Cheryl so it won’t find out about us- our covert presence is quite literally the only possible advantage any of you have here in this Realm, or in any of the others it seems to procure so quickly-_

_”I really am deeply sorry that you have to go through this on your own. Please, just try to remember that the torture is only temporary- the pain will fade eventually. You need to just stay calm and remember that you’ll be back at your camp soon- and when you do return to camp, find Kate.”_

_”She’s the only thing I can think of that could help you now.”_


	10. Ours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm REALLY sorry for the long break after that last cliffhanger- this is another longer chapter to try and make up for it!
> 
> That being said, I'm sorry to say this but I believe the new schedule is going to include only one new chapter every two weeks- roughly.
> 
> As for this chapter, there are a couple of small warnings. Given the way the last chapter ended, a lot of this chapter is going to be a bit heavy- but hopefully worth it! I'm also adding a second warning here, this chapter does contain some partial nudity but not really in any sexual context at all (mostly).
> 
> That being said, feel free to let me know your thoughts- I hope you enjoy it!

“I _told_ her to leave while she still could!”

“It’s alright, I’m sure Kate understands that. What’s done is done, all we can do now is head back to camp and wait for Cheryl to return.”

Yet Kate didn’t move an inch from where she stood- she was frozen in time, staring back through the exit gate into the grounds of the asylum. 

She had stopped moving the second she saw Cheryl’s aura get picked up by The Deathslinger, watching as the girl’s strangely magenta hue lifted into the air- her aura’s color almost like that of a killer...

Kate didn’t think about it much, not when her eyes had squeezed shut when Cheryl was thrown onto the hook.

Yet nothing could block out her scream, still echoing through Kate’s mind with a torment worse than any of the other haunting melodies that The Entity had tried to drive her mad with in the past. 

She knew what Cheryl sounded like when she was in pain- yet that scream sounded like something entirely different. 

It had Kate whimpering where she stood, clutching at her heart. 

“Kate, the realm is collapsing- we have to go now.”

While the act of Adam placing his hand on Kate’s shoulder was meant to be comforting, his grip was strong and fulfilled its purpose of snapping the distressed songbird out of her horrified trance. 

Her feet started shuffling to follow Adam loosely behind as they moved further and further away from the exit gate. Laurie was already well ahead of them, not waiting for Kate to catch up like Adam had. 

The songwriter was moving physically, but mentally she remained as still as a statue. Completely mute with her eyes trained to the grass, using every last bit of strength she had left to keep placing one foot in front of the other and fight back the unbearable urge to fall to her knees and cry out for the girl whose hand fit perfectly into hers and smelled like old books with a hint of vanilla-

They were supposed to look out for each other. 

The walk back to camp was completely silent between Kate and Adam, but she was thankful for that. Adam seemed to pick up on the fact that there was little he could say to make her feel better.

While she was upset that Cheryl hadn’t survived, Kate’s current feelings were so much more than that. She felt guilty, guilty and ashamed that there wasn’t more she could have done to protect Cheryl once The Deathslinger had impaled her. 

She should have done a better job at distracting him, kept his attention long enough for Adam and Laurie to finish opening both of the gates- then she could have scooped Cheryl up in her arms and carried her all the way back to camp.

Hell, she could have even carried Cheryl _while_ she was distracting the killer. It wouldn’t have been easy, but Cheryl wasn’t that heavy of a girl and Kate knew she would have found a way to pull it off. 

Yet none of that mattered now, as she’d already been sacrificed. The first time getting sacrificed to The Entity was never easy, but Cheryl was as resilient as they come.

That wouldn’t stop Kate from worrying however, especially now that they had just just started to establish _something_ of a relationship beyond platonic. 

If it weren’t for the most recent events, the thought would have brought a warm smile and flushed cheeks to Kate’s face. Being so close to Cheryl in that way during the trial brought forth a giddiness she hadn’t felt since before she was a teenager- back before she agreed to a career in the spotlight and was rendered unable to feel her crushes more openly. 

It had been so freeing- being able to finally give and receive all of the romantic gestures she had only been able to experience prior through words on a page. She had been afraid of being too forward with Cheryl after they had been interrupted while they were stuffed in that locker back at the chapel, but she didn’t think the other girl had taken any issue with it- every cute little smile or blush Kate had managed to produce out of her was all it took to completely set the songbird’s heart on fire.

Yet every good thing in this world seemed to come with a heavy price, Kate knew that all too well. Maybe that was why her endless and dreading worry for Cheryl’s soul wouldn’t cease. She knew that one sacrifice wasn’t enough to charge for the blissful high of adoration that sparked between the two of them like electricity whenever their bodies seemed to make contact, or the secure blanket of mutual fondness that was exchanged whenever their eyes would meet.

It was the only price tag in this realm or the next that Kate could ever fear. 

She was actually grateful to Laurie for making it back to camp first, going out of her way to let everybody know what had happened beforehand so that nobody was jumping onto Kate with questions when she finally emerged from the bushes and stepped back into camp. 

By now, the vast majority of the other survivors seem to have learned that it was best to just leave Kate alone, save the handful of sympathetic glances. In pretty much any other circumstance, she was the friendliest face in the room to talk to about whatever was on their mind- unless Cheryl Mason was the topic of concern. There was nothing Kate could do to help it either- her feelings for the young veteran of terror were simply too strong to contain beneath her usual upbeat and impartial attitude. 

She made a beeline for her own tent without stopping to greet or even make eye contact with anyone on the way- though she could feel the worried eyes of Jane and Jeff boring into her as she slipped beneath the fabric of the tent’s flap.

Changing into some fresh, non-blood soaked clothes was the first thing Kate could think of to try and calm herself down. Zarina and Yui were still together on their bed- thankfully clothed- with Zarina’s head resting in Yui’s lap, their soft murmurs coming to a halt the instant Kate made her presence known. 

She was thankful they kept a spare med-kit in the tent at all times- she wasn’t feeling up for a visit to Claudette just yet, but she knew it was unwise to leave her wounds from the prior trial untreated. Some quick adhesive bandages and crude medical tape would hold them together for now, but she’d have to get them properly looked at soon.

Kate was used to changing in front of her tentmates by now, and paid little mind to them while she ripped off her bloodied tanktop and shorts in exchange for her green flannel and faded blue jeans. 

Yet her two closest friends quickly deduced that something was amiss, Zarina slowly raised herself into a sitting position as both girls turned warily towards the musician. 

“So uh, how was the trial?”

Zarina’s question was not directly answered, as the tent flap quickly opened from behind Kate to reveal Jane Romero entering unannounced. 

“You told Cheryl how you felt before she got sacrificed, didn’t you?”

Both Yui and Zarina’s eyes widened as they glanced at each other warily. 

“Thank you _so much_ for knocking and waiting patiently before coming in Jane-”

Kate hadn’t looked up from doing the buttons on her shirt as she spoke, but it was still obvious that the low and sarcastic drawl to her greeting was so out of character it had set everyone else on edge.

“You told Cheryl how you _felt?_ ”

“Cheryl got _sacrificed?_ ”

Jane gently held up a hand to silence Zarina and Yui’s questions, keeping her focus on Kate. 

“Look, I’m not here to try and comfort you. I’m here because I know you, and I have a pretty good idea what’s going through your head right now.”

If it weren’t for the worries already plaguing Kate’s mind, she would have been surprised with how easily a sharp retort came to her mind- she bit her tongue to keep it from slipping out. 

“You’re feeling worried and helpless for her, and right now that’s making you more than a little prickly.”

“People forcing themselves into my business also makes me more than a little prickly-”

“I can see that-”

Zarina and Yui both looked dumbstruck at the hot molten steel dripping from Kate’s biting reply, but even more shocked when Jane snapped right back without any hesitation.

“-which is why I want to go right ahead and warn you. I’m really happy for you and Cheryl, but I know you have a tendency to be a little sensitive when it comes to her- that’s only gonna get worse the further you start to fall for her.”

Kate closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“You mean to tell me there’s still further I can go?”

The singer’s voice came out almost like a soft whine, which was sounding closer to her normal than her prior sharpness. 

“Unfortunately, when you find the right person there’s usually no end in sight.”

Jane was giving a soft smile now, glancing over at Yui and Zarina as she spoke.

Zarina seemed to figure out where Jane was going with that simple glance alone.

“But it’s important to make sure you don’t get too overwhelmed, especially if and when us vultures start forcing ourselves in your business-”

The journalist pointed a thumb to her chest and grinned, prompting Yui to roll her eyes beside her. 

“It will get easier to manage in time, Zee and I can speak from experience.”

Yui leaned in with her body to give her girlfriend an affectionate nudge, prompting Zarina to wrap an arm around Yui’s waist and plant a kiss directly on her nose.

“In general Kate, being _with_ someone is an experience that should make you happy and empowered- and not a burden to yourself. Make sure your potential relationship with Cheryl here doesn’t get in the way of your relationship with you, okay?”

Kate nodded, forcing herself to process what Jane was actually trying to tell her. It made sense, she had a habit of letting the feelings she had for her loved ones control her to the point of self destruction- but even through all of her worry and exhaustion she still understood that her friends were at least trying to help her.

“Thank you- all of you. I’ll be sure to check in and make sure I’m not burning myself out.”

The reassuring smile Kate produced must have been enough to satisfy Jane as she started to make her way back out through the tent’s flap.

“-and I’ll be sure to have the same talk with Cheryl as well when she gets back!”

The thought of Jane Romero trying to intimidate _her_ Cheryl like some stern parent brought a soft chuckle out of Kate’s chest.

“Good luck with that Jane-”

That was when Kate finally realized- if there was no life for Jane Romero left outside of this realm, that meant the former talk show host was likely to never find love for herself. 

The silence that followed after Jane had left did little to bring solace to Kate, sitting down on the edge of her hay bale bed and playing with the sleeves of her flannel until the feeling of fabric on her wrists started to irritate her and she rolled each sleeve up to her elbows.

Zarina and Yui seemed to settle back down on their own bed, Kate could see them both out of the corner of her eye, watching her and presumably wondering what more they could say to try and bring comfort to the lingering tension of their silence. 

“Surely she’ll be back soon-” Zarina finally chimed in, Yui still appearing to be deep in thought. “-she was the only one sacrificed, right? So it’s probably nearly done with her by now.”

“Yet it is her first sacrifice- how soon Cheryl returns could depend entirely on how valuable it deems her soul to be in its clutches.”

Yui’s ominous addition sent a chill down Kate’s spine, but in a strange way it did help ease her nerves. Even to a being of presumably infinite power like The Entity, she doubted a being so cruel could see Cheryl’s value to the same degree that Kate did. 

The musician’s conclusion was ultimately proven to be true, yet several minutes still passed by before the confirmation would be found. It came as the three women continued to sit in silence, Kate silently debating to herself whether it was worth leaving for the woods to retrieve her guitar and songbook- but that excursion would run the risk of her not being here the exact moment Cheryl would get back- 

And then she heard it. 

She was the only survivor who did, as the sound was so faint and unremarkable it could have been mistaken for anyone passing by her tent- but somehow Kate knew from just the simple scrape of a boot on the dirt coming from behind the tents that Cheryl had finally been released from The Entity’s clutches. 

Her worried anxieties evaporated away into thin air, replaced with nothing but an anxious excitement to reunite with the girl of her affections.

Kate was up on her feet and barreling out of the tent in a rush, smiling to herself as she noticed both Yui and Zarina jump at the sudden movement- the former even cursing out in Japanese with a hand over her chest. 

Kate made a mental note to make it up to them later- as well as thank them for their patience in dealing with a distressed and lovesick Kate Denson. But surely they understood what she was going through on some level-

And perhaps that was why she valued her friends in a place akin to that of family. 

Kate was expecting Cheryl to probably be a little shaken up, which sobered her excitement and corrected her demeanor to a more gentle approach. She would likely need some space at first, maybe some room to breathe- then Kate would offer her hand back into its proper alignment with Cheryl’s own and skip off somewhere to finish what they had started while they were enclosed at the chapel in Crotus Prenn-

Then came a second sound, detected just before Kate could turn the final corner and reach behind the tents. A sound that blasted away all of her silly little plans like waves crashing into a castle of sand-

It was a sniffle. 

A single sniffle, indicating sorrow. Distress. Suffering. 

It struck Kate like a bolt of lightning, but she did not allow the sudden shift in the atmosphere to bring her movement to a stop. It did slow her down however, as even with Kate’s mind racing with possibilities for what situation she was about to find herself in and how to best approach it-

It quickly became evident once she finally reached her destination that nothing within Kate’s wildest imaginations could have prepared her for the sight of Cheryl Mason’s current condition.

She was shaking, trembling violently where she stood- looking so frail that even the slightly bit of force could have knocked her clean over. 

It was clear Cheryl was trying to keep her arms folded tightly together, but they kept loosening and slipping apart from her constant torturous shivering. 

But what left Kate’s heart completely and utterly shattered was Cheryl’s eyes. While they were usually always red and puffy to some extent, now Kate was able to see what they looked like when Cheryl had actually been crying- they practically looked raw with bloated and blotchy crimson eyelids. The very rims were almost purple from distressed blood vessels, desperate to seek relief from the tension- 

There was a slight shimmer in her sunken brown eyes from the moonlight, drawing a sharp breath from Kate as she realized they were filling to the brim with fresh tears. 

“K-Kate-“ 

It would have been difficult for someone who wasn’t as vocally-disciplined as Kate to recognize Cheryl’s voice, choking and breaking apart as she struggled to even whimper out the other woman’s name. 

It was all more than enough to tell Kate that something was very, very wrong. It was a rough experience for every survivor when they had been sacrificed for the first time, but not a single one ever came back looking like this. 

She remembered how Cheryl would avoid the topic of getting sacrificed, how Kate would get a nagging feeling that she was either scared to get sacrificed or there was something different about her that Kate didn’t know about-

Kate now suspected the latter of the two, as to her it felt clear as day that Cheryl’s experience with The Entity had been something else entirely- something far, far worse than Kate and the other survivors could even imagine.

It took somebody so strong, so caring and impulsive like Cheryl Mason... and had completely and thoroughly broken her. 

“Cheryl, I’m here- what can I do to help right now? Is there anything that you need?”

She made sure to drop her voice in volume, down to a gentle whisper as she fought every muscle inside of her that commanded to move closer to the woman practically cowering before her. 

“K… K-Kate, I…” 

Cheryl’s eyes seemed to widen and glaze over in unseeing panic, her arms finally giving up their effort to hold each other as she struggled to even produce coherent sound. 

With tears beginning to streak down her cheeks, the young veteran of terror took a single step toward Kate- reaching out one of her trembling hands in a pitiful attempt to communicate with a gesture. 

Then came nothing but a single breath. It was loud, sharp and very high-pitched coming from Cheryl- until it dawned on Kate with horror that it was actually a broken sob- 

Cheryl suddenly lurched forward, bangs falling over her eyes as Kate was given little time to prepare for what had happened next. She wasn’t expecting it, especially from someone like her- but Kate still recovered and adapted quickly when Cheryl seemingly found the strength to stumble forward in a rush. 

She felt Cheryl’s arms grasping around her rib cage, clinging to the songbird tightly while a mop of soft blonde hair buried deep against her neck as Cheryl began to sob openly into her shoulder.

The tightness in Kate’s throat was swallowed down with ease as she felt herself give in to instinct, arms moving automatically to secure Cheryl in her own hold. Kate’s left hand moved rhythmically up and down her upper back while the right held the back of her head gently in place, fingers threading into dark brown roots as Kate dipped her face down towards the scents of treasured old books and vanilla.

Neither of them said anything for Kate wasn’t sure how long. She couldn’t hear anything outside of Cheryl’s crying and her own desperate attempts to calm her down.

The worst part was not really knowing _what_ exactly had caused the girl she cared about so deeply to be reduced to such a state. She didn’t seem to have any physical injuries, or at least not any that Kate could see.

Whatever it was, the torment Cheryl seemed to feel from it wasn’t letting up anytime soon.

While muffled by her dark green flannel, Kate could begin to make out words coming from Cheryl’s strained wails and painful cries.

“...I’m sorry, I-I’m sorry… I’m so s-sorry-”

Kate started stroking Cheryl’s head with her right hand and shushing her tenderly, using as soft of a voice she could muster to try and murmur words of reassurance into her ear.

“It’s okay, you’re okay. You’re safe now, everything’s alright.”

Kate could feel a head shake gently against her, the broken girl’s embrace tightening as it sounded like Cheryl was fighting to catch her breath.

“No, n-no it’s not… it’s not that-”

Cheryl’s voice broke off into another long stretch of crying, the growing wet spot left Kate thankful she had changed her shirt after their trial. 

“You don’t have to apologize for anything Cheryl, it’s okay-”

“N-no… I have to tell you... about-”

She was cut off by another sob and a wheeze tearing through her throat, which prompted Kate to whisper more sweet nothings into her ear.

“You don’t have to tell me anything right now dear, let’s just be here in this moment together and breathe, okay?

Her term of endearment seemed to elicit more trembling from the girl in her arms, feeling a gentle nod against her shoulder as Kate thought she heard Cheryl’s crying grow quieter just slightly.

Kate wasn’t sure how she was able to stay so calm throughout all of this. The hammering of her own heart was an afterthought with her focus so narrowed down to a single point, consisting of nothing but the tragically visible pain that enveloped the girl held so tightly in her arms. 

Cheryl just cried, and cried, and _cried-_

Something soft and weightless landed on top of Kate’s head, wincing at the whimper of protest from Cheryl when she slowly removed her hand from her hair.

Kate’s hand reached up into her own head and returned holding a signature pink handkerchief. 

What had she done to deserve such amazing friends?

Just enough distance to place the cloth into her front pocket was all Kate needed, before she immediately closed it again- Cheryl practically collapsing into the musician’s body as she supported both of their weights with ease. 

Another long stretch of crying fits and attempts at comforting said fits awaited the pair, Kate shaking away the horrifying thought that Cheryl might not _ever_ be able to calm down from this state- was there even anything Claudette could do if she tried turning Cheryl over to the self-taught medic’s care?

The thought was quelled by the tightness returning to Cheryl’s grip, fistfuls of fabric at the back of Kate’s shirt indicated some semblance of a fight to regain control over herself, a spark that ignited hope deep within Kate’s chest. 

She could feel it when Cheryl’s mouth finally closed, her lips tightly pursed together against Kate’s collarbone before only parting to try and blubber out words once more-

“C-can they…? I don’t… can you…?”

Her head lifted just slightly, unfocused eyes searching for Kate’s own helplessly. 

She was trying, fighting so hard to reach her-

But Kate was already here, already knowing exactly what Cheryl was trying to tell her.

“Would you like me to take you somewhere we can be alone?”

Cheryl’s faint nod of a reply was all she could force out before her face crumpled, falling back into Kate’s neck as her chest heaved into another sob. 

They needed to be alone.

Kate leaned in and whispered a brief warning into Cheryl’s ear, before her arm ducked down and scooped up a pair of frail legs into a gentle carry- trembling arms locked into place around Kate’s neck. 

A twinge of irritation sparked across Kate’s upper back and down her left side, but she shrugged it off and started with Cheryl in her arms toward a specific destination in mind. 

It probably wasn’t as tranquil to a city-girl like Cheryl as it was to Kate, but it was the most secluded place she could think of. The songwriter bobbed through the dead trees and decaying undergrowth with precision, careful not to permit a single claw-like branch to scratch anywhere near her precious cargo. 

Just next to where her guitar and songbook rested, Kate lowered herself down onto the large rock in the little clearing and crossed her legs- smiling faintly at just how easily Cheryl’s body molded into hers now that Kate could sit and hold her in a gentle cradle. 

Her sobs were already starting to dissipate, but Kate discovered through trial and error that a gentle rocking back and forth was the quickest method to successfully soothing Cheryl. An exclusive performance of _Dance With Me_ was gently hummed to the rhythm of Kate’s rocking, causing Cheryl’s head to curl inward and press an ear directly over the songbird’s heart. 

Towards the end of her song, Kate found the opportunity to retrieve Yui’s handkerchief and began wiping away at Cheryl’s tear-stained cheeks with a featherlight softness. A series of her other softer-toned songs followed in Kate’s humming as she continued to dab gently around the smaller girl’s face and eyes until the tears stopped flowing and her cries were reduced to simple hiccups and whimpers. 

When Kate was satisfied, she placed the handkerchief into Cheryl’s limp hands and moved on to humming any comforting melody she could think of outside of her own discography. 

No words were spoken when it happened, but Kate took note of Cheryl’s reaction to _Here Comes The Sun_ by The Beatles. The young veteran of terror had opened her eyes and held her breath until Kate’s humming reached the chorus, then Cheryl seemed to let out a heavy sigh as her eyes slipped back shut. 

Kate decided to repeat the song once she had finished, and by the time she reached the end of her third humming of the tune Cheryl’s breathing had managed to slow and even out completely. 

Her sleeping form finally brought out Kate’s own prolonged sigh of relief. 

Cheryl was okay. 

Well, somewhat okay. 

Kate still had a lot of questions, but they were for later. 

She blinked back the stinging that pricked at her own eyes. 

No more crying.

Even if they were tears of relief.

Kate’s eyes drifted back down to Cheryl with a soft smile, now the songwriter could unabashedly admire her peacefully-sleeping form. Her eyes traced over every freckle, every splotch of redness and every scar from horrors conquered and lived through. 

Cheryl Mason was so, so _beautiful_.

No Entity could ever take that away from her. 

Without thinking, Kate tilted her head down and pressed her lips to the top of Cheryl’s forehead, the sound of her kiss muted by long blonde bangs that draped over her favorite pair of golden brown eyes. 

Which were, much to Kate’s surprise, gazing up into her own in pure wonderment once she gently brushed the hair away from Cheryl’s face. 

Of course, Kate should have known.

Cheryl Mason doesn’t sleep peacefully. 

Her gasp that followed wasn’t even audible, but it was enough to deliver a faint and mischievous smile to Cheryl’s face- a sight which Kate certainly wasn’t going to complain about. 

Neither one spoke for several heartbeats after that, merely staring and enjoying the other’s presence until they were both surprised at which one of them broke the silence first. 

“How did you know?” 

Cheryl’s voice was weak and thin, but it was still a fully coherent sentence- it was enough to send a heavenly warmth throughout Kate’s chest.

“How did I know about what?”

“The Beatles song. My dad would sing that to me when I was a kid to calm me down after my nightmares. He said it was my mother’s favorite song. I… I might remember her singing it to the other-Cheryl when she cried as an infant.”

Kate’s growing smile faltered slightly in confusion. 

“What do you mean by ‘the other-Cheryl’?”

Cheryl’s chest seemed to make a noise, like a soft but broken laugh. 

“You’ll know soon enough, but I’m gonna need to get some water before I tell you about all of that- my throat is killing me-“

Her voice did sound hoarse now that it had garnered some more strength to it. 

Kate cursed herself internally for not bringing her flask. Why didn’t she think to bring some water, or maybe some snacks-

Cheryl’s entire body stiffened and quickly shifted off of Kate’s lap at the sudden sound. It was a twig snapping, just behind Kate at the edge of the clearing. The way the smaller girl seemed to regress and fold inward on herself ignited a familiar protective flame within Kate.

But Kate wasn’t dumb, she knew whoever was approching them made the noise intentionally, warning them of their presence. 

The musician still wanted to be cautious however as she rose to her feet and turned to meet the intruder, positioning herself to shield Cheryl from view with her body. 

“My apologies for intruding, the others all agreed that to send me would present the most ‘non-threatening’ approach. I covered my ears with my scarf until the timing seemed right, so I did not eavesdrop on any of your conversation either-”

The others would be proven correct, as Kate’s fire of protectiveness seemed to fizzle out the moment she laid eyes on the slowly encroaching Jake Park.

Jake was not a particularly friendly survivor, he rarely if ever at all smiled- no matter how hard Kate had tried. But it was clear that he did care about the other survivors quite a bit, using his own top-tier survivalist knowledge to act as Claudette’s right-hand assistant when collecting herbs and treating wounds.

He also made the best tea Kate had ever tasted in her life, using only the scraps of plants he could scavenge from the fog of this Realm- he had an herbal tea treatment for any and every ailment Kate could possibly think of.

Speaking of which-

“This is for calming the nerves and soothing emotional distress. You’ve had a weaker variant of this plant before Kate, so keep that in mind if either you or Cheryl are interested in having some-”

Jake gently lowered to a knee in front of Kate and set down a ceramic tea kettle, along with two small metal cups- and Kate’s own water flask, presumably from her tent.

“Zarina gave me your flask to deliver in case you weren’t interested in the tea- Yui requested I bring you this, ‘should you need one as well’.”

The survivalist produced a second pink handkerchief from his pocket and handed it directly to Kate, who pocketed the cloth immediately before the thought behind the gesture could make her emotional. 

“Jane insisted that you would both get hungry, depending on how long you were out here- so Jeff went and prepared this for you-”

Jake held up a handmade wicker basket and set it down beside the tea kettle at Kate’s feet.

“And finally, both of your tentmates informed Claudette of your injuries- she sent me to ensure that they are treated properly since you didn’t get them looked at by her before-”

Kate tensed at the way Cheryl let out a soft gasp behind her.

“K-Kate… your shirt-”

The tightening of her voice sent Kate into high alert, realizing too slowly that the thing causing Cheryl’s regression into fear-filled eyes and quickly paled face was _her_.

But Kate’s turning to check on Cheryl had caused Jake to see it too- pulling out a medkit and moving forward to gesture for Kate to sit down.

“It would probably be best if I bandaged that up sooner rather than later. Could you, you know-”

While unfortunate in hindsight, Kate’s early subjugation to the standards of celebrity appearances usually made her rather nonchalant about exposing herself- as long as the proper places were covered. Yet somehow she now found her fingers fumbling nervously at the buttons of her flannel, her face flushing not of her own accord. 

It wasn’t Jake that made her feel this way, he’s seen nearly every inch of her covered in blood and ugly gashes throughout her time here. 

Then it dawned on her, it was _Cheryl._

Kate still wasn’t entirely sure what her and Cheryl were exactly. Girlfriends? Partners? _Friends-Who-Hold-Hands-And-Cuddle-And-Kiss-Each-Other-On-The-Forehead-And-Maybe-On-The-Lips-If-The-Ever-Manage-To-Get-There?_

Regardless, Kate knew that this wasn’t how she wanted Cheryl to see her topless- but _now was certainly not the time to think about if and when she did want Cheryl Mason to see her topless-_

“Cheryl, could you-”

That was all Kate could mutter out, unable to even meet Cheryl’s eyes as she hoped a quick glance in her direction was all she needed to send over the hint. 

It wasn’t.

Cheryl’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Do you... need help taking it off?”

Give it a second-

She only needed to study Kate’s body language a second longer to realize what the singer was implying, Cheryl’s own face turning bright red as she incoherently mumbled out several different apologies at once and shuffled to quickly turn around. 

Kate finished the final button and shucked her flannel off, finally noticing that the wound from her back had begun to bleed through her shirt slightly. It wasn’t a serious injury in the slightest, but it did have Kate cursing herself for not getting it looked at sooner based on the way it seemed to alarm Cheryl. 

It really wasn’t that bad, but she should have tried harder to take care of herself.

“May I?” 

Kate nodded her head at Jake’s request, but he still waited until she murmured out a verbal “yeah, it’s fine-” before unhooking her bra and getting started on removing the crude bandages and properly cleaning and dressing the superficial gash on her upper back. 

He had her back and shoulder treated and bandaged with ease, also changing the bandages on her side that Cheryl had applied during their prior trial as well. 

“Depending on how much longer you two stay out here, come back to get these changed sometime soon after you return to camp.”

Kate nodded when Jake finally stood and wiped some of her blood off of his hands with a cloth, closing up his medkit while Kate put her bra back on. 

“Hey Jake? Could you- could you do me a favor?”

Cheryl’s weak voice surprised Jake and Kate, the other woman still facing away from both of them as she spoke.

“Of course.”

“When you get back to camp… tell Zarina and Yui that I’m ready. They’ll… they’ll know what that means.”

“Understood, I will tell them.”

Kate made a note to ask her tentmates about this when they returned to camp, not sure if whatever Cheryl and her friends were conspiring was worth demanding Kate’s attention or not- certainly not now.

“I don’t suppose you brought an extra shirt?” 

Kate meant that as a joke, but felt bad when Jake looked genuinely apologetic and shook his head. Her green flannel was still wearable, maybe just a little uncomfortable at her upper back once the blood would eventually dry.

Jake disappeared back into the trees without saying a word, which wasn’t uncharacteristic for him- his delivery was still greatly appreciated nonetheless. Just as she picked up her own shirt to put it back on, she detected movement coming from Cheryl next to her-

Before Kate could figure out what was happening, Cheryl’s white vest jacket had been removed and tossed behind her, landing softly in Kate’s lap. 

“Oh, thank you-“

She tossed her own shirt aside and was more than happy to slip on the new top. It smelled like Cheryl, and it brought an uncontrollable smile to her face as she zipped up the front and gave herself a little hug. 

It was so soft, almost squishy. 

“Oh, you can turn back around by the way, I’m decent-“

The pleasant warmth she was feeling from having Cheryl’s vest on was washed away by the look on her face once she turned around.

“You were _bleeding out_ that entire time?”

The unsettling pit that grew larger in Kate’s stomach wasn’t from how pale Cheryl had become, nor from the way she had started to tremble faintly once more-

It was from her voice. Cheryl sounded so afraid.

“No no, it was just a small cut that bled through a little- I’m okay now, see? All patched up!”

Kate gestured to the bandages visible down her left shoulder before reaching out to Cheryl with a reassuring hand, the brief touch of Cheryl’s own hand pushing it away stung like a particularly nasty burn.

“It’s not okay… you were hurt and didn’t take care of yourself-”

Kate found herself at a loss of words. Cheryl’s lip was quivering, weary eyes watering once again. She truly believed that Kate had put herself at risk, only adding further to the distress of everything The Entity had put her through.

“I’m sorry, I promise I’ll try harder to look out for myself from now on.”

Kate really meant it to, if not from her friends’ earlier intervention then especially from seeing the way it hurt Cheryl.

And of course, for herself. 

Her admission seemed to be enough to satisfy Cheryl, who submitted herself to slowly closing the distance between them once more and crept over Kate’s lap to nestle beside her on the uninjured right side. 

“That way we can learn to look out for each other, right?”

Cheryl’s very light nod into her shoulder was all that was needed for a response. 

The warmth that Kate could feel radiating off of herself was practically glowing, both in the adorable act of watching Cheryl get comfortable next to her but also in the relief from preventing another meltdown. 

With a gentle hand, Kate reached over and brushed away the tear threatening to trickle from Cheryl’s eye with her thumb, finding herself doing the same to her other eye. There was no doubt that the young veteran of terror was still in very rough shape, but Kate wasn’t planning on going anywhere in the meantime. 

“Are you cold?”

Kate could whisper the words out softly now that they were alone and so close together once again. She wasn’t sure if Cheryl was still trembling or shivering- the Realm wasn’t bitterly cold, but there was a reason why those at camp stuck around the campfire if they weren’t sleeping in tents. 

While her arms were usually bare, Cheryl looked especially cold now that her only top was a sleeveless orange turtleneck. Her skin was cold to the touch as well, though Kate seemed to recall that wasn’t unusual for Cheryl.

“Maybe a little, I could go for some of Jake’s tea if it’s still warm-”

The pleasant dreariness in her mumble had Kate smiling as she reached down to pour a small cup of tea from Jake’s kettle, surprised to find that it was still in fact, very warm. 

She murmured out a soft warning as she handed Cheryl the steaming metal cup, the other girl using Yui’s pink handkerchief to hold it safely in her hands- with Kate’s own hands holding Cheryl’s to help her bring the cup to her lips. 

“This is nice- but I’m still… _cold_.”

Cheryl’s tone brought a twinge of worry to Kate’s chest, the girl implying that her feelings weren’t just from the temperature alone. She stared forward, as if looking at something else entirely.

Kate lifted the tea back up to Cheryl’s lips, the simple motion snapping her out of her sudden trance. 

It hurt the songbird’s heart to move her hands away from Cheryl’s own, especially from the tiny whimper of protest that escaped Cheryl as she did so. But the songbird still reached for her own flask of water and the wicker basket Jake had brought for them, plopping each of them in her lap. 

A quick swig of water was grateful and refreshing, Kate having no idea how dry and tight her throat had been. Her hand snuck its way into the wicker basket, curious as to what exactly had been prepared for them-

Kate couldn’t help but let out a little squeal, before wrapping a reassuring arm around Cheryl’s shoulders when the smaller woman visibly startled at the sound.

“Jeff made us little sandwiches!”

Bread itself was a rare luxury here- bread that wasn’t stale was practically unheard of.

Somehow Jeff had managed to get ahold of some fresh bread, making a small sandwich for each of them. 

He even cut the crusts off-

“It’s like we’re his kids or something-”

Cheryl had leaned her head further onto Kate’s shoulder to peer at the sandwiches in her lap, the comment sparking a fit of giggles to burst out of the songwriter. 

Cheryl was nearly beginning to sound like herself again, which brought most of the unfiltered joy into Kate’s laughter. 

The two women came to a simple agreement- they would enjoy their meal together, Cheryl would drink her tea, and only if she was feeling up for it by then would Kate guide them back to camp for some much needed rest. 

Or at least Cheryl had agreed to _try_ and get some rest, but Kate had a feeling that it would be easier than expected with the help of Jake’s tea. 

Then after a long rest- given The Entity wouldn’t interrupt them for a trial- Kate would bring them back out to the little clearing with the large rock and Cheryl would explain everything. 

Even at Kate’s insistence that Cheryl would only share what she was comfortable with.

“I’m comfortable with telling you everything, Kate-”

Her slurred and sleepy mumble brought a smile to Kate’s face once more. She wasn’t sure when Cheryl had returned to her lap- she had just seemed to somehow gravitate further and further into Kate during her three cups of tea until she was curled up in the singer’s arms once more.

“Would you like me to take you back to camp for that nap now?”

Kate was truly a master with her voice- knowing just how to overpower someone with a honey-like smoothness that sat slightly above a murmur but still soft enough to lull anyone into agreeing with her.

There was a reason why the world back home had nicknamed her _The Siren._

Back when she was a minor, she had secretly found the concept a little creepy-

But all those sticky and messy thoughts from her past were washed away by the cute little noise Cheryl made when Kate’s wandering hand ended up back in her hair, threading fingers into dark brown roots to graze her scalp ever so lightly-

“Ngh, it’s hard for me to think straight whenever you do that-”

Kate merely responded with a soft hum of innocence, easing up at Cheryl’s adorable pout.

Now that the worst of Cheryl’s distress seemed thoroughly sedated, Kate could allow herself to _fall in love_ with having Cheryl close enough to receive her affection. It was addicting, the freedom to simply reach out and caress one’s cheek with every _real_ and raw emotion implying behind the gesture. 

Kate could finally experience it for herself- the _why_ of every true relationship’s worth.

Cheryl did eventually give in and agree to go back to camp- but Kate didn’t blame her for wanting to stay in this blissful moment forever. 

As much as she wanted to, Kate couldn’t carry Cheryl back to camp along with all of the supplies that they had with them. Her pen and songbook were tucked away into one of the many pockets Cheryl’s white vest seemed to possess- they all seemed to hold various little trinkets, but Kate respected Cheryl’s privacy too much to fully investigate them herself. With that Kate was able to sling her guitar across her back, carry the wicker basket and tea kettle set in one hand whilst holding Cheryl’s own hand in the other. 

It took quite a while for the pair to return to camp, Kate guiding them through the forest with extreme care and caution- not wanting to rouse a sluggish and bleary-eyed Cheryl out of her sleepy haze. 

Every curious or concerned stare was challenged and averterted by Kate’s own once they returned to camp. Her plan was to drop off their supplies in Kate’s tent before carrying Cheryl safely to her own tent to rest-

Only to find upon entering her own tent that all of Cheryl’s belongings had been moved into the unoccupied forth bed in the very back corner. 

“She said it was time-” was the only explanation Zarina had for her, the anticipation of sleep quickly catching up to her leaving Kate far too exhausted to question it. 

She felt Yui take the kettle and basket from her hand, leaving to presumably return the items to their proper owners. Kate didn’t think about it much as she finally guided Cheryl into her bed and tucked the blanket over her, a smile breaking through her face at how quickly Cheryl’s body seemed to stiffen and curl into itself uncomfortably- that was how to know if Cheryl Mason was really asleep or not. 

Kate tried her best not to fall into her own bed, but it seemed as if the weight of every recent event was hitting her body all at once. 

And Kate knew that she needed to look out for herself as well, so she was out like a light.


End file.
